


Kaeru

by Ann_O_Neem



Category: Naruto
Genre: Family Fluff, Father Figures, Gaara's cuteness will be the death of me, Lot of scheming, M/M, Possible Character Death, Time Loop, Time Travel, precious Kazekage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-05
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-01-18 06:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 56,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1418508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ann_O_Neem/pseuds/Ann_O_Neem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaeru, the Toad masked ninja was a strange shinobi. He appeared from nowhere and adopted right away the jinchūriki Naruto. Riled up Uchiha Itachi, the famous ice king, and perverted Hatake Kakashi. Fought like an enraged beast and had a heartwarming smile. Kaeru knew too much. And... he was something out of time and space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why but I never know what to write in the first Author's note. Disclaimer? Some intel about the story? Interesting anecdotes? Funny quotes? So many things...
> 
> So I'll make it simple. Naruto isn't mine. And thank whatever deity comes to your mind because it wouldn't have ended well. At all.
> 
> This fanfiction will contain the following: Not-so-secret-spoilers, Bad grammar (people, English is something along my fifth language. I don't have a diploma in it), questionable humor (I think that I have one. If I have a humor at all), mention of SLASH/YAOI/BOY ON BOY. I did write it (in caps too) so don't flame. Also, this is my second attempt at time-travel. I like those kind of stories.
> 
> Anecdote: I won't bash Sakura. Or Danzō. Or Sasuke. No one actually. It's a first for me. (Let's see if I can do it)
> 
> And I don't have any funny quote in English so... I'll let you read the first chapter.

The boy seemed perplexed by something. His head was slightly tilted, his chubby left cheek almost grazing his shoulder and his eyes were glowing with curiosity.

A villager walked and passed next to the boy. As usual, the civilian glared at the boy and spat right at the child's feet before walking to the nearest store to buy some things for the dinner. The light on the street was dim and the boy had to narrow his eyes when he noticed that he couldn't see clearly whatever had caught his interest.

Some ninjas stopped briefly by his side to find out why he was so silent and calm but the boy didn't move an inch and continued frowning softly and munching on his lips.

His sky blue eyes watched avidly the ants moving on the dusty ground and his mouth was slightly agape when he saw one of the insects transport the corpse of a spider. The spider was way bigger than the ant but the insect didn't seem to struggle with it.

The boy had seen how the ants had surrounded the spider and killed it. Of course, a lot of ants had died trying but the spider was now dead and the ants left were now scurrying away with the corpse.

His fingers hitched to move. In fact his whole body wanted to move. Staying so calm wasn't something that he did often, mostly because he had too much energy and needed to spend it before the night fell or he wouldn't sleep.

Suddenly a smile appeared on his chubby face and the boy turned his head to grin at the being who had just appeared from nowhere.

It was an adult wearing the formal garb of the Hidden Village shinobi. Along with the jounin vest and a mask with animal features on its face, the adult also wore a hoodie that covered its head and hid its hair. It was simply impossible to discern anything at all from the jounin. And as the adult had never spoke to the boy, he couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman.

"Kaeru-san!" The boy exclaimed happily.

He quickly dusted his ragged clothes and his smiles increased tenfolds when he saw the jounin tilt its head and pat softly its stomach.

The boy knew that the jounin hated close contacts and stayed put before nodding vividly and he closed his eyes as his smile grew bigger by seconds.

"I haven't ate yet," he answered to the silent question from the adult.

The jounin nodded and began to walk without a glance to the boy. However, the child knew better and scurried to follow the adult. He quickly caught up with the masked jounin and began to tell it all he did during that day.

They finally got to a familiar stall and the child's blue eyes twinkled in happiness when the familiar smell of miso broth and noodles greeted him.

"Old man!" he exclaimed loudly. "Three miso pork ramen!"

The jounin let out a small sigh and raised five fingers to the cook. The man, accustomed to the shinobi's strange ways, nodded with a wide grin and began to cook masterfully the ramen.

"Here they are!" The cook said as he put the five bowls in front of the strange pair. "Five miso pork ramen!"

The boy squealed happily and began to dig in while the jounin nodded softly to the cook and took out a seal. the adult put it on its toad mask and Teuchi, the cook, looked away politely.

He had known a lot of shinobi who liked to keep their secrecy but that masked shinobi was the one who went to such length to keep its face unseen. Teuchi was also sure that the shinobi's protégé hadn't even seen it.

Once they had both finished eating, the jounin stood, payed and the boy was quick on his feet to follow the adult. They walked silently in the darkening streets and the child's smile grew bigger by seconds when he noticed that the masked jounin was whistling an unfamiliar tune.

"Ne, ne, Kaeru-san," the boy said after a little while.

They were now in a public park and the jounin was walking leisurely. The boy wasn't too far from the adult as the latter would slow whenever the child stopped to look at something.

"Do you think that I'm a monster?"

The boy's happy and bubbly voice contrasted with the seriousness of his question. The jounin stopped walking and crouched in front of the child. The younger widened his eyes when he saw the adult trace a question mark on the ground and he observed the finger that was tracing other characters. Kaeru-san wore fingerless gloves and didn't have buff fingers. Nor hairy ones.

The boy scrunched his nose at the idea of his friend being hairy and cocked his head while he tried to decipher whatever the jounin was writing for him.

Kaeru-san had been the one who had taught him how to read and write so the boy was proud to say that he could read better than the children in his class.

「Why are saying that?」the jounin wrote messily on the ground.

Some of its characters were a bit messy and the boy had to narrow his eyes when he hesitated over two different meanings for one of them. Why did Kaeru-san write the "ta" the same way the jounin traced its nine?

"Someone said it today," the boy shrugged. It wasn't that important for him. Everyone called him like that and sometimes even he had some difficulties to remember his true name.

It would have been nice to hear Kaeru-san's voice saying his name. But that was just a wistful thinking. The jounin never talked, even to its fellow comrades.

「Was it one of the villagers?」

"Not really," the child scrunched his nose and scratched his neck. "It was a boy in class. He said that a monster shouldn't be accepted in a ninja school... Do you think the same, Kaeru-san?"

The jounin sighed heavily and shook its head slowly. The adult then tapped its chest and the child's eyes widened in surprise.

「It's the heart that matters.」 the adult wrote and sighed once again. 「Judging people by their pasts or their families is dangerous. You can lose inestimable friends and allies if you close your heart like that.」

The boy's smile was blinding and he tightened his hands into fists to contain his urge to just glomp his friend and almost family-figure.

The jounin then tilted its head and tensed before springing to its feet. The masked adult erased the characters on the ground with a swipe of its feet and jumped on a rooftop before disappearing in a whirlpool of leaves.

The boy blinked slowly and glanced at the three men squad. He recognised the Uchiha symbol on their jackets and nodded curtly to the policemen. The three men ignored the child and looked around them with their Sharingan glaring ominously.

"Dammit!" One of the Uchiha swore loudly. "Almost caught it!"

"The Frog isn't one to be caught by surprise attacks," the second Uchiha stated with a deadpan look at his companion.

"Shisui, just go to the Hokage," the third told to the second. "I'll stay with Rei and make sure that the Uzumaki boy gets to his apartment without being attacked."

The Uchiha named Shisui nodded curtly and jumped into a rooftop before leaving for the Hokage tower. Meanwhile, the boy blinked again and smirked at the two Uchiha left.

"Maybe next time," Uchiha Rei cursed under his breath.

However, the child heard him and glared daggers at him.

"Kaeru-san is way better than all of you!" He bragged loudly before walking to his apartment. "You'll never catch Kaeru-san!"

"Someday we will," the third Uchiha corrected sternly and the boy froze when he met those red eyes that glowed ominously in the darkness. "The Frog can not stray from its responsibilities every time it wants to fool around..."

"Enough Itachi-sama," Rei whispered deferentially. "The brats will piss himself if you keep using your Sharingan..."

Uchiha Itachi's eyes glared briefly at his companion before the Sharingan vanished and his eyes went back to their usual black color.

' _I wonder why that Sasuke-teme's brother is so angry..._ ' The child thought and he rubbed pensively his chin before grinning maliciously. ' _It must be Kaeru-san's doing..._ '

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen, third Hokage of the Hidden Village of the Leaves aka Konoha, sighed heavily and glanced from his tower of paperwork to the teenager bowing in his office.

"So?" The old and tired Hokage inquired while he signed another A-rank mission that had went successfully. Kakashi seemed to be on a roll. Maybe he should give him some vacations, that was his third A-rank in two weeks.

"The frog masked shinobi appeared once again by the jinchūriki's side. They went to eat ramen and walked by the village without a care about the strict surveillance they were under," Uchiha Shisui explained with a blank voice.

"Did you get to talk with him?" Sarutobi insisted while he rubbed his weary eyelids. "Or her?"

He didn't discriminate shinobi. And that Frog one was a force to recon with. It had appeared out of nowhere and had taken to stay by the young Naruto's side, helping the kid with whatever he was struggling with and avoiding effortlessly the troops of ninjas trying to capture him/her.

"No, sir," Shisui immediately answered. "The Frog vanished and even Sharingan couldn't trace it. Maybe the ninkens could..."

"I'll ask Tsume and Kakashi once they return from their missions," the Hokage nodded and joined his hand on his desk. The tower of paperwork moved slightly and he took a sharp intake of breath. If those papers fell, it would be the end of it. He'd have to stay the whole night awake to reorganise it.

"Also, sir..." The teenager seemed hesitating over something and Sarutobi stayed still. "We've seen the Frog with Danzō-sama..."

The Hokage narrowed his eyes and gritted discreetly his teeth.

"What happened?" He ordered and Shisui straightened his back.

"From what we saw," the shinobi explained with a strained voice. "The Frog menaced Danzō-sama to tell the village something. We still haven't found what..."

"I want your ANBU team on this affair," the elder said sternly. "This is a maximum security mission. You can't report it to the council, am I clear?"

Shisui nodded silently and vanished in a whirlpool of leaves.

Once he was sure that he was alone in his office, the Hokage grunted in frustration and glared at the window behind him.

"Must you antagonise them so much?" He grumbled and didn't bat an eyelash when a form appeared in the window and greeted him with a casual wave of its hand. "Come in, Kaeru, we have a lot to talk..."

The person nodded and opened the window before jumping swiftly in the office. Meanwhile Sarutobi cleaned his desk and leaned his elbows on it, his eyes assessing grimly the jounin in front of him.

The jounin wore the traditional garb and had a fit and toned body, that much Sarutobi could tell from its posture and its moves. But, as the jounin's clothes hid its face and as his jacket and pants were too big, the Hokage couldn't tell its gender.

Nonetheless, Sarutobi leaned for the male gender. The mask wearing stranger had this vibe around him/her that was way too similar to some of the Konoha shinobis. Namikage Minato or Hatake Kakashi to say a few.

"What did happen with Danzō?" The Hokage asked once the jounin was sitting in the chair in front of his desk.

Kaeru shrugged and waved one of its hands in the air as if it didn't really matter.

"Talk," Sarutobi ordered after making some quick hand signals. "Nobody can hear us."

The jounin sighed heavily and its shoulders sagged before the henge the masked adult wore vanished. The toad mask was pushed to the side and a familiar face with twinkling eyes appeared. As always when he saw the jounin's face, Sarutobi took a sharp intake of air and felt his chest constrict.

The jounin ran a hand through its distinctive male features and stopped his fingers on the seal traced on his neck. He pushed his thumb against it and the seal glowed briefly before dimming quietly.

"Aaah..." The jounin exclaimed as he let out his voice for the first time of the day. He stretched happily and the Hokage sighed heavily.

The Kaeru in front of him and the Kaeru who liked to taunt the Konoha shinobis were so different that it sometimes gave him headaches.

"This is just heaven!" Kaeru added before sobering and meeting the elder's eyes. "I talked with Danzō. If he keeps acting like that, I'll probably kill him. Is that okay with you, Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi frowned and glanced at his joined hands, remembering his old days as a genin with Danzō. But then he remembered that he had in front of him the jounin who had come from nowhere and had sworn him his utmost loyalty. Or rather, his utmost loyalty to Naruto.

"Why would you go to that length?" Hiruzen inquired softly.

He was feeling old and tired. Maybe it was time to step down from his Hokage title and hand it down to a more capable shinobi. Maybe Jiraya or Tsunade...

Kaeru was out of question. That much had already been discussed the first time they met.

"One of my...  _friends_  was in Root," Kaeru shrugged and scoffed as he remembered his friend. "I promised him that nobody would live that kind of life ever again..."

Sarutobi frowned and shook slowly his head.

"Remember your mission," he told the jounin and the adult pouted like a kid.

"You gave me free reigns," Kaeru complained. "Why shouldn't I change some things? For one death, hundreds will live..."

The Hokage sighed and settled by just waving a hand.

"Don't kill Danzō," he ordered and the jounin's pout increased. "I'll be the one who will do it if he steps out of line."

"He already did," Kaeru muttered gloomily and Sarutobi rolled his eyes when he saw the professional shinobi act like a spoiled kid. "What about Ita-chan?"

"Uchiha  _Itachi_ ," the elder insisted with a scoff. "I already told him that he had to stop taking ANBU missions and he's supposed to be bedridden in the hospital until Tsunade examines him."

"Well," the jounin drawled as he observed his nails. "He was the one in Shisui's team and almost caught me... It seems that the Uchiha aren't following your orders anymore. What will you do? Follow Danzō's plan? Let Ita-chan be the next Hokage? Or let Uchiha make a coup d'état?"

"Enough!" Sarutobi thundered and the jounin didn't even bat an eyelash. "I won't let the ' _Uchiha massacre_ ' happen, as you so gently put it."

"That's great," Kaeru grinned brightly and the Hokage felt his eyebrow tick. "If you didn't, I'd have come here for nothing..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed and kneaded his temples.

"Just get out of here," the elder barked when he saw the jounin cackle at his headache. "And make sure that the Uchiha don't catch you. I don't want you to give Anko other pranks ideas..."

"Yeah," Kaeru nodded and his grin began even more blinding. "You wouldn't want to see Ibiki shellshocked once again... But it was so funny, believe me!"

Sarutobi closed his eyes and counted to three. When he opened his eyes, the jounin wasn't in his office anymore and he let out a final sigh before settling to work on his paperwork again.

When Kaeru had appeared out of the blue two years ago, the Hokage hadn't expected that young stranger to be so powerful and full of knowledge about Konoha.

Hell, he even knew about events that still had to happen!

The Hokage grunted and leaned his forehead against his desk. His headache was now worse than ever.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Hatake Kakashi leaned against the tree trunk and comfortably sat on the branch while he took out his loved possession. The last of the Icha Icha books, Icha Icha Violence. He made a sound of content and opened the book. However, just as he was about to indulge into his guilty pleasure, the ninja heard leaves bustling and soft steps coming towards him.

Kakashi felt lazy today so he merely closed his book and stored it away (he didn't want it to disappear in another Katon jutsu). When he saw the familiar Toad mask and jounin vest, the Konoha shinobi sighed softly and didn't move an inch.

The masked jounin ended in the same tree as Kakashi but he was suspended by his feet at a higher branch and probably looking around him to see if his trackers were still hot on his tail.

"If it isn't the infamous Kaeru-san," Kakashi drawled and he smirked under his mask when he noticed how the jounin had tensed when he had spoke.

So he didn't want to be found by whoever was looking for him.

It would be such a pity if he was to be found, right?

Kakashi's grin increased and his eye took an U-shaped form while a dark aura began to surround him.

That Toad was going to pay for that stray Katon that had destroyed his first Icha Icha Violence...

Kaeru raised his hands in a silent plea for his help and Kakashi merely eye-smiled brighter at him while his aura darkened. The silver haired jounin could hear distinctively the other man gulp nervously.

They both heard leaves rustling and Kaeru tensed before jumping from his branch when a big ball of fire flew towards it and collided loudly.

Kakashi swore under his breath and appeared right next to the Toad masked man, a kunai pressed against the jounin's trachea.

"Why is it that I always end running with you from Uchiha Itachi's ire, Kaeru-san?" Kakashi asked with a pleasant voice and his eye-smile at full power.

Kaeru shrugged and made a move to swipe the Copy-nin's legs but Kakashi was faster and he jumped away from the masked jounin. His kunai drew blood but Kaeru didn't seem to mind and didn't let out any sound.

"So you're a real mute," Kakashi muttered for himself before tensing and fleeing from the clearing that they had found themselves fighting in.

Blood ran freely on the jounin's clothes and the man didn't seem fazed by it as all his attention was on the approaching tracker. Red eyes gleamed ominously in the clearing and Kaeru gulped loudly.

"Uchiha Itachi," Kakashi drawled as he sat on a tree branch to observe how bad the Toad was going to suffer by the enraged Uchiha. "Why am I not surprised? What did he do this time?"

"Hn," Itachi simply answered in his monosyllabic way.

Kakashi rolled his eyes as did Kaeru. Then the masked jounin had to evade another Katon as it seemed that Itachi was really irritated at him.

The toad masked man raised his hands in a plea to appease the teenager but Itachi didn't flinch and kept on attacking him relentlessly.

Finally, Kakashi had enough of watching the two ninjas fighting and jumped to stop them. He deftly caught Itachi's hand and Kaeru's leg that had both been raised and the adult sighed heavily before flipping them both.

"So," the silver haired man insisted. "What did he do?"

Itachi's Sharingan vanished and the teenager gritted his teeth in irritation. However, he didn't try to release his arm and merely glared at the masked man. Meanwhile, Kaeru just shrugged and patted softly Kakashi's arm before pointing at his masked mouth.

"I see... If I release you, will you write it?" The Konoha ninja asked with a raised brow.

Kaeru nodded excitedly and Itachi stopped glaring at him. The Uchiha seemed now interested in the masked jounin who he'd never been able to caught.

The Toad masked shinobi, also nicknamed Toad, Frog or Kaeru, had appeared in Konoha two years ago and hadn't joined its shinobi troops but had stayed in the hidden village all this time, never taking missions, only looking over the jinchūriki Uzumaki Naruto. At first, everyone had been on high alert. It was an evident fact that the other hidden villages would like to have their jinchūriki with them.

However, the Toad jounin had never made any suspicious move. He just stayed next to the jinchūriki and made sure that the boy was fine and happy. A thing that not a lot of people in Konoha did and that was something that ashamed Itachi.

If his little brother had to suffer being alone like the Uzumaki boy did, Itachi wouldn't like being in the sidelines. He would be by the little boy's side and would make his darnedest to help him and make him happy.

So when he had been appointed as the jinchūriki's safe keeper to make sure that the Frog didn't kidnap him, Itachi had used this situation to help a bit the Uzumaki boy and began to fill the pantry and refrigerator whenever he had the time and the boy was sleeping. It was an outrage that the villagers sold him perished goods. The boy was lucky that he had the Toad to treat him for some ramen every night...

Thus Itachi had began to respect the Frog. Just a bit but as he was an Uchiha, it was something to recon.

Of course, Kaeru had to go and crush what little respect he'd won from the Uchiha heir.

And thus, this explained why the Toad masked jounin had to flee from Itachi's deathly blows once every three days.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

「I didn't let him catch me and went to the Hokage.」Kaeru wrote quickly in the earthy ground with his fingers.

Kakashi crouched to read it and frowned when he had to decipher whatever the man had wrote. That was the worst case of chicken writing that he had ever seen.

"Why did you do that?" The Copy-nin asked with curiosity.

Itachi was sitting on a burned tree stump and was meditating while the two ninjas discussed.

「He's sick.」the masked jounin shrugged and ignored Kakashi's penetrant gaze.

Kaeru tilted his head and seemed to remember something because he quickly went back to his chicken scrawls.

「All those times using Sharingan is wearing his body and eyes. He'll die if he keeps using it so much. So I asked the Hokage to cure him.」

"And Hokage-sama accepted?" Kakashi said with an unbelieving face. His eye narrowed and he assessed discreetly the man in front of him.

He was lean, with a slim and fit body and if Kakashi hadn't had a sense of smell similar to the Inuzuka, he wouldn't have known that the Toad was a man. Also, Kaeru wasn't really tall for a man and finding him in a crowd was the hardest thing ever.

Only a team composed of a Inuzuka, a Hyuuga and an Uchiha would have had a chance to catch him. Except that those families weren't going to work together anytime soon.

「Tsunade is going to help.」

"And now the Sannin Tsunade is going to help," Kakashi muttered. "What else? You're the Sage of the Six Paths? Hashirama's reincarnation? A girl?"

Kaeru nodded and a serious vibe began to surround him while Kakashi frowned. Whatever was going to follow next was going to be serious.

Serious like the next Icha Icha plot. Or the outcome of the next World War.

Kakashi lifted his forehead-protector and revealed his Sharingan, ready to recorder whatever the Frog was going to write or do.

「Yes.」the latter wrote. 「You have one thing left to know...」

Kakashi leaned towards the masked jounin and felt a soft rustling behind him. It seemed that even Itachi was intrigued by Kaeru's last revelation.

「In the Icha Icha movie that will come out in seven years, there will be an extra scene where...」

Kakashi sprang to his feet and wiped the earth with his feet and hands to erase the jounin's writing. However, it was too late as his Sharingan had already seen it.

"I hate you," the silver haired ninja grumbled gloomily while Itachi rolled his eyes.

Kaeru's shoulders shook, showing them that he was indeed laughing at the Copy-nin's despair. But after a while, he raised a finger and beckoned them to get closer. Kakashi folded his arms in his chest and Itachi glanced briefly at the other ANBU before sitting regally in front of the masked jounin.

「Do you remember our first meeting?」

The two Konohan shinobis reluctantly nodded. Those weren't really a good memory. Kaeru had been something along a wild beast during his first year in Konoha. He was now way tamer than his first year.

He had been the one who had ripped Danzō's arm after all...

As he had been the one who had tried to befriend them even if they persisted on rejecting him.

Kaeru was  _that_  tenacious.

「Didn't I tell you something really important at that time?」

Kakashi didn't know how but he knew that the Frog was actually smirking at him. He could almost picture it, a foxy smile with closed eyes. And seeing Itachi's tensed body, the Uchiha could too.

"I refuse," the two ninjas said at the same time.

Kaeru shrugged and clasped his hands before making his articulations creak loudly. The gesture was enough to convey his point.

"I still refuse," Kakashi insisted while Itachi used his "hn" as a back up.

The darkness that surrounded them was now suffocating.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"Kaeru-san!" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed as he got out of the school.

He ran to the adult and stopped at mere inches from the man, a wide and blinding smile on his lips. The masked jounin raised a thumb as a congratulation and greeting before glancing at the two gloomy ninjas that were sulking behind him.

"Why are those two here?" Naruto asked with eyes sparkling in curiosity as he glanced at the two more or less familiar faces.

He knew that Itachi was Sasuke-teme's big brother. But he had never seen the silver haired man before. However, the stranger wore a mask, like Kaeru-san, and Kaeru-san was like family for him. So it was probably Kaeru-san brother. Or son. Or maybe father. Who knows the stranger had white hair after all.

"Ne, ne, Ojii-san," Naruto said as he stopped right in front of the silver haired man. "Are you Kaeru-san's father?"

The stranger's only eye widened in shock and he paled while he ran a hand through his hair.

"So I already got to this age, huh," he muttered darkly. "Children don't lie..."

Kaeru patted him mockingly in the shoulder before hugging him briefly and tracing at the same time the kanji for ' _father_ ' on the stranger's back.

Naruto watched his almost father-figure hug the stranger and frowned. They seemed pretty close. And Kaeru-san let that stranger touch him while he didn't let him do that...

Was it because he was indeed a monster?

Naruto's smile faltered briefly before he put it back and smiled brightly at the masked adult.

"Why are you here Kaeru-san?" The boy asked politely.

For a moment, he had thought that he had a family waiting for him at the school gates and he had treasured that thought. He looked at his feet and bit nervously his lips. Kaeru-san never waited for him at the school gates. If he was here, it was for something else.

A hand was suddenly on his shoulder and Naruto tensed before he relaxed once he realised that it was Sasuke-teme's brother.

"We're here because Kaeru-san ' _asked_ ' us to look over you while he's away next week," Itachi explained with his soft voice.

Naruto nodded slowly and narrowed his eyes when he realised that it meant that Kaeru-san wouldn't be there for him.

"How long?" He asked with a nervous voice.

What if it was forever?

The masked man raised his two hands and tilted his head. It was something along his way of smiling. Naruto relaxed as he counted the seven fingers and he nodded with a bright smile this time.

"One week," he accepted and Kaeru's shoulders shook as he laughed silently. "But you must be back on the seventh day, 'ttebayo!"

The masked jounin nodded seriously before tilting his head while his shoulders shook once again. Naruto made a foxy grin when he recognised those moves and he sat on his heels, waiting for the adult's story.

「Those two will be your mother and father.」Kaeru wrote and maliciousness was seeping from every of his pores.

Naruto glanced at the two gloomy ninjas and his foxy grin widened.

"Restrictions?" He asked while he eyed the two men with an ominous glint in his sky blue eyes.

「Free reigns. Just don't kill them.」

Naruto's grin was now unbelievably wide.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Sarutobi was wondering whether taking his midday break to eat something at Ichiraku ramen with Naruto or just go to sleep. However, those ideas flew by the window when he felt the familiar chakra of the number one knucklehead and problem maker of Konoha.

"So you're really leaving," Sarutobi said coolly while the Toad masked ninja appeared in his office.

Kaeru made the hand signs necessary for the protection jutsu and sighed softly once the shields were up. He then took out his mask and put it on the Hokage's desk while he put down his hoodie and shook his head to disperse all the sweat that had matted his fair hair.

Sarutobi observed the young man in silence, taking in stride the fair and ruffled hair, the distinctive features on his face and those sky blue eyes with bloody red slitted pupils.

"Where are you headed?" The Hokage asked while the man scratched softly his tattooed neck.

The seal glowed briefly and Kaeru let out a loud yawn before laughing loudly.

"You should have seen them!" He exclaimed and Sarutobi sighed. As always when talking with him, the jounin didn't listen to him... "They were so shellshocked! It was even better that that time with Ibiki!"

"Don't traumatise my shinobis," the elder chided.

"Sorry, Jiji," Kaeru laughed feebly and scratched his neck. He looked so much like his father that Sarutobi felt his chest tighten. "But I've made so much progress with Itachi and Kakashi-sensei that I can't help it, 'ttebayo!"

The Hokage sighed heavily and pinched his nose.

"Sometimes I really wonder why you were the one sent here..." He muttered darkly while the jounin looked at him with a deadpan face. "Who would have thought that you'd end as such a fine young man, Naruto?"

The blond haired man smiled brightly at him and began to laugh loudly.

"Didn't I tell you already? I'm going to be the next Hokage, Jiji! So I better make sure that the village is still intact when I become Hokage, dattebayo!"

Sarutobi smiled at Naruto's claim and and he couldn't help it but frown.

What could have thought his successor to send the man to this time period? Did they have lost hope and sent Naruto here so he could change whatever had gone really wrong in their time period?

And how could Naruto be fine with that? He was here, out of his time and with all his friends so young and unknowing of their bonds. Naruto had always hated being alone and here he was, all alone once again just so he could save Konoha.

This Naruto was a hero in the shadows. One who will save Konoha from its destruction and who will disappear with time. Without anyone even remembering him.

' _Such a sad fate that you've condemned yourself to, Naruto_ ,' the Third Hokage thought grimly.

The blond haired Naruto grinned at the elder, almost as if he'd heard his thoughts and he winked at him.

"Don't worry, Jiji! I'll just leave the Village for a week. Besides, I'm way stronger than you think I am, 'ttebayo!"

Sarutobi sighed and nodded.

"Very well," he accorded. "Where will you go?"

"Suna," Naruto answered with a big grin. "I want to see a dear friend."


	2. Their first meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you squint your eyes and say that this chapter doesn't make any sense: This chapter is called their first meeting. And it's not for nothing. Also, it will go back in time as you proceed reading. Like you read a part in two months before first chapter and then you pass to a part three months before first chapter. Do I make some sense? No?
> 
> Doesn't matter.

The little girl sniffed and hid her face in her flexed legs while she encircled them with her arms. The familiar taunts and jabs echoed faintly around her and her frail body shivered from her soundless sobs.

{ _Forehead-girl!_ }

{ _Know-it-all!_ }

{ _Ugly-girl!_ }

Those were already familiar and she hated how much those jabs still pained her every time.

She wailed silently and leaned her back against the dark alley street. She had escaped from her tormentors (other girls from her class) and had hid in that dimly lit alley, behind some dustbin that stank of rotten fish.

Her clothes were covered in filthy water and her hair was matted with mud. Her tormentors hadn't been happy when they had found that she had the best score of their class.

It was in that kind of state that she met that strange person.

She was silently sobbing when she felt a hand pat her muddied hair softly. She sniffed loudly and quickly wiped her snot-covered face before blinking her teary green eyes while she took in her comforter's looks.

It was an adult wearing the jounin uniform and wearing a mask with animal features. She squinted her eyes, trying to find out what kind of animal it could be before she realised who it really was.

Three weeks ago, the jounin had barged in Konoha and ripped one of the Council members' arms savagely before surrendering to the Hokage without even putting at fight. Since then, the jounin had haunted the Village and they were rumours that he (or she) had been in a SS-class mission targeting the Council member and had been ordered by the Hokage.

Even if the jounin had been surrounded by suspecting ninjas, he or her hadn't been fazed by it as he (or was it a her?) had stayed in the Village and had taken to stay by the residents number one prankster, Uzumaki Naruto. The little boy seemed to like the jounin as he still hadn't done anything to him/her.

The girl blinked and stopped thinking about the jounin's reputation when she felt the adult's hand pat comfortably her hair. She blushed vividly when she remembered that her stupid hair was full of mud and quickly swatted the jounin's hand.

The masked adult tilted its head and stayed still, its hand still reaching towards the girl while she blanched.

She had swatted the jounin's hand. The jounin's hand who had ripped that powerful Council member's arm without any problem. In short, she was so dead right now...

The little girl cowered against the alley wall and she closed her eyes while flinching when she saw the jounin approaching her.

She waited for the deathly blow and tensed when the air swished around her. Her hair swayed savagely and whipped her cheeks softly while her body shook with fright.

It was only when the wind stopped short that she heard the clapping.

She creaked fearfully an eye open and gaped when she noticed that the jounin was sitting on its heels, its head tilted and an aura of innocence around him/her. The girl blinked and looked around her. Some dustbins had been knocked down by the sudden wind but nothing had been destroyed. And she was still alive.

She blinked once again and noticed that the jounin was writing something in the ground with a kunai. Without even noticing it, the little girl's body relaxed and she squatted in front of the jounin, her eyes squinted while she tried to read whatever the adult was writing.

「Better now?」

The little girl gulped and nodded softly. She raised her head and noted how the jounin's head was slightly tilted to its right and its shoulders were relaxed. From its posture, she quickly deducted, the adult was probably a seasoned shinobi. Male too. His breathing pattern was deep, deeper than a woman would have been.

"I'm okay," she muttered meekly. She hesitated a bit before adding "... Thank you, jounin-sama."

The jounin's shoulders shook softly and he raised a thumb at her before suddenly turning the thumb towards the ground with a negative grunt.

She tensed and looked fearfully around her. If she had unnerved the jounin, she wouldn't get out of this alley alive.

「Don't hide behind that mask.」the jounin wrote and he let out an exasperated sigh before ruffling violently the girl's hair.

The girl's eyebrow ticked and she quickly swatted the adult's hand with an enraged growl. An aura of violence began to surround her and her hair almost seemed to flow around her before she quickly regained her wits and put her mask of meekness on. She looked abashed at the jounin and blushed when she saw him with his shoulders shaking. He was laughing at her.

「Just like that!」He wrote and he raised his thumbs once again. 「You look like Tsunade the Sannin like that.」

The little girl tilted her head and her eyes widened in surprise when she read the compliment in the ground.

"Really?" She asked with sparkling green eyes. "Really really? I really look like her?"

The jounin nodded and folded his arms on his chest before huffing loudly. He then pointed at the little girl's chest and made an approving grunt while giving her a thumbs-up.

「Haruno Sakura, the next Medic Sannin of Konoha. Believe it!」he wrote neatly on the alley wall with his wind infused kunai.

He almost pierced the wall but his chakra control allowed him to only grave on it. The little girl looked with star-filled eyes the inscription in the wall and she tightened her fists while she nodded with conviction.

"I'll do it!" She swore to the jounin. "I'll become the best medic ever, shannaro!"

The jounin tilted his head and the little girl felt a heartwarming feeling in her chest. She felt as if the stranger was smiling at her and she grinned at him. For the first time, she wasn't perturbed by thoughts from how big her forehead was and what would the jounin think of her.

"Thank you, jounin-san!" She said and her smile only increased when he patted her pink hair and ruffled her now clean tresses.

The jounin shrugged, gave her another thumbs-up and quickly shunshined away.

Sakura blinked and joined her hands on her chest. She felt as if she had butterflies in her belly.

Was this... Love?

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Uchiha Itachi frowned as he observed the swooning little girl in the deserted alley.

He wouldn't have pegged the Toad jounin as a cradle robber. But then, he wouldn't have pegged the jounin as a bloodthirsty shinobi. Still, he was one.

Itachi observed the little girl, Haruno Sakura, she was Sasuke's classmate and one of the most promising kunoichi of the lot. Good grades, her chakra reserves were maybe too small. But if the Toad was interested in her, it meant only one thing.

Haruno Sakura was going to be a good kunoichi.

The Uchiha heir let a fond smile graze his lips before he tensed and got back to his habitual deadpan face.

"Itachi," a shinobi appeared right in front of the teenager and Itachi concealed a sigh. "I see that you take your stalking very seriously..."

Itachi rolled his eyes and elbowed the ninja's stomach. The latter flickered away and taunted the black haired teen from a nearby roof.

"So?" The shinobi inquired at the ANBU captain with a mocking smirk. "How did it go with your lovely frog?"

"Shisui," Itachi growled while he took out two kunai. "Shut up. Right now."

Uchiha Shisui laughed loudly and almost fell from the roof. Still, he stayed on it and evaded effortlessly the two kunai that his cousin had thrown rather viciously at him.

"Who would have thought that there would be someone out there who could have pissed off the great Itachi-sama," Shisui taunted and he laughed even more when Itachi body-flickered to his roof to swiftly kick him in the shins.

The eldest Uchiha fell on his knees with a pained grunt and cursed silently his cousin who couldn't take a joke. But he quickly sobered up and was on his feet while Itachi guarded his back. The two Uchiha glared at the stranger masked that was observing them from the roof of a nearby building.

"It seems that we have attracted quite an interesting frog," Shisui commented with a dark smirk.

"Hn," Itachi took out two kunai and observed the Toad masked shinobi, his Sharingan flaring to life.

The Toad suddenly clasped his hands and the two Uchiha tensed. If he did another strange jutsu like he did on his first day, they would retaliate with their Sharingan.

But the strange merely kept his hands clasped and began to swoon on the roof like a lovesick schoolgirl.

"What... What the hell is he doing?" Shisui exclaimed with widened eyes.

Itachi glared at the masked jounin and his stress-marks seemed to deepen when he realised what the stranger intended to convey.

It was only when the Toad pointed at Itachi and then at himself before making a heart with his joined hands that Shisui understood.

And he quickly fell from the roof.

Laughing at Itachi's demise wasn't something to be done in front of him.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When Sarutobi had first met the Toad shinobi, he hadn't expected to meet a young man with sparkling blue eyes and familiar whiskers marks. As he hadn't expected that the ninja, who had just ripped Danzō's arm like it was a mere puppet and without even flinching under all the attacks of the old War Hawk, to just surrender once the Hokage came to meet him on the battleground.

Hiruzen was garbed on his battle wear, his habitual dark clothes and staff in his hands. One of his monkeys was by his side and the both of them froze when the masked stranger stilled when he (or she) saw the old shinobi. Then, as Sarutobi flew to Danzō's side and ordered to one of his old friend's guards (they were Root agents. With those neutral faces, it wasn't difficult to find out) to send him to the hospital. Once Danzō left with his guards and Hiruzen was the only one left to fight against the stranger, did the masked shinobi sigh loudly and bow curtly its head to the Hokage. Then, almost as if it didn't really feel fear at his predicament, the stranger threw Danzō's arm to Hiruzen and folded his arms on his chest, waiting for the elder's judgment.

It only took one look to the ripped member to notice what was wrong with it.

"How did you know?" Sarutobi pushed his feelings about his old teammate to the side and glared at the masked shinobi.

That stranger had know about Danzō's secret when the Hokage himself didn't. That was suspicious. As suspicious as Orochimaru's affection for the Uchiha. His former student had some strange ways to show his interest on something...

Hiruzen shook vividly his head and glared daggers at the shinobi. Now wasn't the time to think about all the internal problems in Konoha.

Meanwhile the stranger merely shrugged and made the universal gesture for 'Who knows...'. Sarutobi growled and pounced, his staff in his hand and ready to just bash the shinobi's mask so he could ascertain if he was an ally of a foe.

The shinobi effortlessly avoided the blow and didn't retort. He just jumped to another roof of the suburban part of Konoha and kept his arms folded. From his posture, Sarutobi deducted that the other wasn't going to retaliate and wanted to talk. So the Hokage stilled and, his summoned monkey by his side, shunshined right in front of the ninja, a hand right on the shinobi's throat.

Even if the masked stranger wore a black scarf, Sarutobi could still feel the Adam Apple and he grunted lowly when he felt a rumble run through his fingers. The man was laughing.

He didn't let any sound out and his shoulders only shook a bit. However, the Hokage knew that the man was laughing happily at him.

"Who are you?" The elder ordered with an icy voice. "Who sent you?"

The man shrugged once again, not at all perturbed by the Hokage's death intent that he emitted heavily and he coolly raised a hand to slowly take out his scarf.

Hiruzen took a quick step back before barking orders as he knew that the whole area was covered by ANBU agents.

"Stay back! He has dangerous explosives on him!"

Immediately, the Hokage was pushed aside by a Wolf ANBU and the elder frowned when he was manhandled until he was in safe grounds.

The Toad masked shinobi hadn't moved an inch during all that time and was still laughing silently. Two ANBU appeared with twirls of leaves in front of him and red eyes shone ominously behind their masks while the stranger stopped laughing and unfolded his arms.

"Wolf," Hiruzen snapped when he had enough of the stalemate. "Stop protecting me and take the ANBU with you so you can protect the villagers. I'm the Hokage, I'll be the one to deal with this shinobi."

The Wolf ANBU nodded tersely and quickly released the elder before vanishing with his squad behind him. Sarutobi sighed and quickly jumped between the three ANBU that were threatening with their death intent the stranger. Hiruzen ignored the three pairs of flaring Sharingan and nodded curtly at them before dismissing them like he did with Wolf.

"Go with your captain," he tersely ordered while he eyed suspiciously the stranger.

Even if it was clear that they didn't like the idea of their leader fighting alone the menace, the three Uchiha nodded silently and shunshined away after a last glare to the man. Once they were really alone, Sarutobi frowned and quickly made handseals, muttering under his breath their names while the powerful jutsu took slowly place around them.

A dome semitransparent encased them and the Hokage's glare increased when he heard the masked shinobi whistle in appreciation.

"Who are you and what do you want from Konoha! Answer me!" Sarutobi ordered and this time, his voice was so sharp, it could have cut trough anything.

The masked shinobi looked around him and scratched his neck before removing once again his scarf, revealing a neck with lightly tanned skin. But the most fascinating about that neck was the spiral seal tattooed on it and pulsating slowly. Hiruzen tensed when he saw the masked shinobi's thumb touch the seal and the elder let out a deep breath when nothing happened.

"You aren't the God of Shinobi for nothing, Jiji!" An amused and definitively male voice said.

Sarutobi blinked.

That voice had been surprisingly young. And terribly familiar. Also, the Jiji had been disturbingly familiar too.

"Who are you to call me like that?" Sarutobi hissed. However, he was slowly feeling more curious than anything.

Of course, he still felt anger at the stranger for ripping his old friend's arm. But he had seen what horrors had been done to that member so he could relatively understand why it had been ripped. Relatively so.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was a war-seasoned veteran shinobi. He had lived through two Great shinobi Wars and had seen what kind of horrors happened in it. He had seen the most sweet people murder without batting an eyelash tons of enemies so their dear persons were safe.

"I'm Konoha's hero, dattebayo!" the masked stranger claimed with his hands on his hips.

He radiated such confidence in himself that Hiruzen couldn't stop the amused chuckle to escape his lips. Then he froze because the man had used the same catchphrase as Naruto. And he had called him 'Jiji'...

"Shouldn't you say Konoha's next Hokage?" Sarutobi proposed and he narrowed when he saw the shinobi flinch before rubbing his neck while laughing apologetically.

"So you already know?" The Toad masked man whined like a little boy. "Damn... I really can't hide anything at all to you... Damn Jiji..."

Sarutobi sighed and ran a hand through his coarse hair. His staff changed back into the Monkey king Enma and his summon looked at him with a heavy frown.

"Really, Hiruzen, you had to call me for nothing at all... You're beginning to lose your sharpness," Enma commented in his deep voice.

The Hokage laughed softly at his favorite summon's jab and shrugged. Enma huffed loudly and disappeared after reminding him that he wanted a whole cargo of bananas for his next summoning. Hiruzen merely rolled his eyes and looked at the masked shinobi.

The latter hadn't moved during the brief discussion and his mask was facing the elder, showing that he had his whole attention. Hiruzen sighed once again and felt something akin to a monumental headache begin in his head.

"Really," the old man whispered fondly. "You must be the only ninja in the village to make things so difficult, Naruto..."

The masked man laughed happily.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Being an ANBU when one hadn't even had their thirteen birthday was a strange occurrence. Even if being an ANBU was something strictly secretive and to never be revealed, when one was so young, the body stature couldn't lie.

And thus, here he was.

On his second month being an ANBU rookie and being lightly teased by his comrades. While Wolf-sempai, his squad captain, was an alright person with him, he never treated him like a lesser being nor did he talk to him like he would have with a child, the others weren't so great.

Cat and Snake were horrible superiors. They had more or less the same rank but they never failed in remembering that he was the younger one and as the youngest, he had to obey everything.

It didn't really annoy him, he was wiser and more patient than them.

But sometimes, after a long mission with his ANBU team, it could be tiring to hear their light jabs and mocking remarks as the heavy silence from Wolf-taichou. And that always resulted in heavy solo training sessions in the woods around Konoha.

Sometimes, he took his little brother with him. Sometimes not. Those times were when he was really beginning to be irritated by the pettiness of his fellow comrades and the inutility of it. His heart wished peace and he understood that those persons didn't mean to hurt him. Nevertheless, sometimes some jabs hurt.

They were generally innocent.

He was still young. With time, his mental shields would be more effective and nothing would faze him. Maybe would that make him able to carry that ' _ **mission**_ '. He still wasn't ready.

The young ANBU whirled around and threw expertly his kunai at the four targets. Every weapon ended in the dead centre but the shinobi wasn't satisfied with it and continued training.

Some leaves rustled softly and the ANBU stilled briefly before pouncing. Four shuriken were thrown to the bush where the sound had come and a Katon swiftly followed.

A dark silhouette came out of the explosion and rolled on the ground, some red leaves following its trail and flowing slowly in the air.

The ANBU was panting imperceptibly. His training had been harsh and some weariness was beginning to slow his legs. Nonetheless, the young shinobi was sure that he'd be able to kill his enemy.

Dark eyes assessed the silhouette, checking silently the green jounin vest, the dark sweater under it, the dark scarf around the frail neck and the mask of white porcelain with red features.

A Toad.

He'd never seen a Toad in the ANBU reunions. But then, he was still a young ANBU, a rookie. It could have escaped his eyes.

' _No_ ,' the young ANBU thought and he narrowed his eyes.

Nothing never escaped him.

There wasn't any Toad in the Konoha ANBU.

The rookie's eyes twirled into their Sharingan form and he glared at the stranger.

The shinobi hadn't moved from the place where he had ended. He had one of his hands behind his head, rubbing softly his head. He had probably been hit by a branch in the bush while he tried to avoid the Katon. However, even if he looked harmless, the ANBU rookie didn't let it fool him.

The shinobi had avoided his four shuriken and his Katon without even getting a scratch.

He was good.

The ANBU jumped, his left hand aiming for the shinobi's throat but the latter bended his chest and avoided narrowly the blow. He then spun on his right foot and swiped the ANBU from his feet. However, the younger ninja jumped just in time to avoid the attack and backed away.

Their taijutsu were on par. It was time to use the ninjutsu.

The ANBU made swift handseals and threw another Katon. This time, it was a Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu and the Toad was frozen in shock when he saw the colossal dragon head made of fire come upon him.

The younger shinobi swiftly wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand and tensed when he noticed an abnormal mass of chakra. It came from the place where the Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu had ended the shinobi's life. The dust and residual fire finally settled down and the Sharingan helped him discern the strange chakra pattern that flew around the Toad.

He had something like a little ball made of pure Wind chakra in his hands and a person, a clone probably, was helping him stabilising the chakra.

The Toad tilted his head and suddenly raised his hands and threw the chakra ball in the airs. The ANBU tensed and he didn't move from his place. He hadn't felt any murdering intent so he didn't think that the ball would touch him.

Indeed, it didn't.

The ball slowly ascended in the forest and crashed soundlessly against a big tree branch that was the side of a little house. And then almost immediately, the branch vanished.

The rookie's eyes widened in shock. His Sharingan had recorded everything and he had seen what had really happened at molecular scale.

He felt something move and quickly took out another kunai while regretting silently to not have his ANBU clothes and weapons with him. The ANBU sword would have been welcome in that kind of fight. Because he really wasn't sure if his illusions would be quick enough to neutralise the enemy before the latter obliterated him with his chakra ball.

The ANBU frowned. That technique felt familiar. Like it was famous in Konoha. But where had he heard about it?

His eyes caught the shinobi moving and he tensed before raising his eyebrows in surprise. The Toad had taken a kunai and was tracing katakanas on the burned ground.

「Rasengan.」

The rookie's eyes lightened. Of course, the Fourth Hokage's extremely destructive attack. He had forgotten about it. He berated himself silently for forgetting something so important and glanced briefly at the shinobi. The latter was now a mere feet from him and if he decided to strike, it would be deadly.

However he was still tracing characters on the ground with his kunai.

「I saw you train.」

The rookie narrowed his eyes and carefully kept his blank face.

「You seem aggravated. Something's wrong?」the Toad asked. The jounin was now sitting on his heels and didn't seem about to attack him.

The ANBU relaxed imperceptibly and shook slowly his head. The masked man (for it was a man. Sharingan could help discern his gender) scratched his neck and sighed heavily before he began to scratch the earth again with his kunai.

「I need a training partner. My taijutsu could use some help.」

"Hn," the ANBU nodded tersely and jumped away before taking out a kunai.

The jounin's shoulders shook softly and he jumped back too.

And then, they fought.

Hours later, when the sun was already long gone and the moon was softly shining in the night sky, the ANBU stopped fighting and nodded curtly at his oponent.

"Uchiha Itachi," he simply said.

The jounin nodded and waved briefly his hand as a salute before he left the clearing.

Once again alone, Itachi sighed softly and glanced at the night sky. He felt less irritated now. But he was tired to his bones.

But first, he needed to get back to Konoha and ask around if there had never been any Toad in the ANBU corps. And if there wasn't, he would make sure that his previous training partner wasn't a threat to the village.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

He wasn't a stalker.

The Konoha ANBU tried to convince himself that he indeed wasn't a stalker. And that he was only making sure that his deceased teacher's only child was fine.

But that seemed more and more like stalking to him.

The shinobi ran a hand through his shagged silver-grey hair and he rolled his eye when once again his prey (no. He wasn't his prey. He was... His protege?) stumbled on his feet and fell loudly on the ground. The ANBU growled under his breath when he saw one of those snotty civilian kids smirk at his protégé and run away while laughing because he had tripped the demon-child by himself.

The adult was sitting on a nearby roof and rubbed pensively his covered chin. His prey-protégé was still on the ground. Not moving if there wasn't those faint shivers on his frail body.

Maybe should the shinobi join him and ask him if he was alright.

But the silver haired man didn't want to reveal himself to the lonely child.

If he hadn't had the guts to take the child and rise him like his teacher would have liked him to, he didn't have to right to approach the little boy.

So he didn't have any other choice but to discreetly follow the child.

And that wasn't stalking. At all.

Even if he was slowly beginning to develop strange reflex. Like every time he saw the child eat his favorite meal, he would smile fondly. He was mellowing.

The ANBU liked to think that the boy was one of the rare things that helped him stay human. And that maybe someday, he'd be able to talk to him without feeling like the worst scum on Earth for having abandoned him when he had needed the most help after the death of his parents.

The shinobi blinked and noticed something move. He tilted his head and observed the seemingly harmless civilian walk towards the down boy before stilling. Adrenaline ran through his body at full power and he slowly put his ANBU mask back on his face.

The civilian didn't let out any chakra. It wasn't normal. Only shinobi could mask it so well.

The boy was in danger.

The ANBU shunshined right in front of the boy and took a defensive stance. He wouldn't let the henge shinobi go near his teacher's legacy.

"State your intentions," the silver haired growled icily and he tried to ignore the sharp intake of breath behind him.

The boy hadn't noticed his presence in front of him. Maybe because he was accustomed to feeling his chakra around him. Well at least his stalking (that clearly wasn't a stalking. It was a close watch over his teacher's son. That's it) had helped in something...

The civilian henge didn't falter and the ANBU narrowed his eye under his mask. This wasn't good.

His hitai-ite wasn't covering his Sharingan and he glanced briefly with it at his opponent. While it looked like a young woman with long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes for any outsiders, the ANBU saw what the person really was. A jounin with a Toad mask. He quickly raked his mind to see if he remembered any Toad in the ANBU but shook his head. There wasn't any.

The civilian-jounin raised a hand with two fingers stretched and carelessly greeted the tense ANBU with a gentle wave. The silver haired growled under his breath.

"Answer me," he drawled with a carefully blank voice.

He didn't need to let his enemy know about his increasing aggravation. Or his worry about his teacher's son. The kid would be in grave danger if they were to battle there.

The jounin had after all a really great henge and the ANBU wondered if he'd have noticed it if he hadn't been already on high alert.

It was then that something totally unexpected happened.

Small fists pounded energetically at his shins and the ANBU glanced below him to notice that the boy was attacking him with his insignificant strength. The child had only began school so his punches weren't laced with chakra.

It really was like a deep massage given by Maito Gai. The ANBU shrugged the kid's tentative and glared at the civilian-jounin before swiftly kneeling to put his hands on the boy's shoulders.

Once his eyes met those sparkling and innocent blue eyes, the ANBU felt his chest constrict and he quickly closed his Sharingan eye. He wasn't going to cast a genjutsu on the child.

The latter blinked and his blue eyes glared fiercely at him. The ANBU couldn't help but remembering his former teacher disapproving look. They looked almost the same. But the kid had some of his mother's features. His eyes and nose were hers.

"Don't attack Naruko-nee-chan," the boy chided with a high strung voice.

The silver haired nodded softly and tilted then his head to glance at the civilian. The henge-d jounin hadn't moved from his spot and was observing them silently. Also, the ANBU had the feeling that his opponent was smiling at them. It unnerved him.

"It isn't your nee-chan," the Konoha shinobi stated slowly.

"Duh," the little boy deadpanned while he rolled his blue eyes. "Of course she isn't. I'm an orphan, ANBU-san."

The ANBU flinched at the child's innocent voice. It was clear that the boy was used to being alone. And that he welcomed the "Naruko-nee-chan's"presence.

"Then, do you know who it really is?" The ANBU asked with an equal deadpan voice.

The civilian-jounin was now sitting in the middle of the road, her green yukata parting slightly at her legs and showing that she was wearing dark tights under it. Like a true kunoichi. The ANBU couldn't help but notice that the henge had really been done well. The details to the feminine body were perfect, she had faint dimples on her face whenever she smiled softly at the child from her spot and her slightly tanned skin had some flaws. It made her look so human and sisterly that the Konoha ninja could understand why the child would call her his sister.

Still... She was a threat.

"Of course, 'ttebayo!" The boy chirped happily. "It's Kaeru-san! He's teaching me how to write those difficult words! With her help, I'll been soon able to surpass that Sasuke-teme! Just see me, I'm going to be the best Hokage, dattebayo!"

The ANBU blinked slowly and glanced at the still unmoving civilian. She was now tracing mindlessly some characters on the grounds.

「A suspicious scarecrow in a field.」

The ANBU growled under his breath when he read what she had written before he stilled when he saw what followed. The civilian jumped on her feet and dusted her green yukata with orange leaves before she winked at the child and disappeared with a little poof.

"Ne, ne?" The ANBU slowly came back to his senses and he glanced at the child who was tugging at his baggy pant. "What does 'Icha Icha Violence ends with a ménage à trois' mean?"

The silver haired blushed brightly under his mask and groaned softly.

It seemed that the chat with the bees and the flowers was going to be very early for his teacher's son...

And that he'd been been given the major spoiler of the Icha Icha series.

That day, Hatake Kakashi vowed that he would avenge himself.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

_{Did you hear about it? The Uzumaki brat doesn't know how to swim...}_

_{How stupid of him... Didn't he go to the river?}_

_{If he falls down there, I won't help him...}_

_{Serves that brat right!}_

The child pushed all those murmurs aside and looked at the flowing water. He had just put his feet in it and appreciated the refreshing feeling. Today had been a really hot day and his dingy apartment was like an oven right now. Being next to the river was better. Even if there was a lot of adults glaring at him and whispering behind his back. He didn't really like being surrounded by all those all coots that seemed to hate him for something he didn't remember doing but the boy had no other choice.

Today was really a hot day.

The sun was high in the sky and the child felt like he could fry an egg on his forehead.

"Dear, why do you always forget to put your sunscreen? You know that you catch sunburn really easily!" A civilian chided her daughter while putting the sunscreen on the little girl's slightly burned back.

"S'rry Mama," the little girl mumbled with a little pout. "But I was busy playing with the others!"

"Really... What am I going to do with you..." The mother sighed and caressed fondly her daughter's blond hair before sending her back to her friends.

The little girl squealed happily and jumped in the river before padding to the other children.

He hadn't moved during all this time from his spot in the sun (all the shaded places were already occupied) and he looked with envy at the mother-daughter small talk.

He felt a pang in his chest and quickly looked somewhere else.

All the children were playing in the water and he glanced briefly at his feet. He was still wearing his sandals (even in the water) because he knew that the moment he put them aside, someone would steal them and burn them. It wasn't the first time.

Sometimes, when he felt as bad as he felt now, the child closed his eyes and let the chakra around him comfort him. There was always this strange forest-like and almost canine feeling around him and he had come to think of it as a father-figure. But that chakra wasn't around today and he sighed wearily.

He glanced another time at the water and swished softly his feet. The water flowed slowly around him and he closed his eyes again.

The murmurs increased around him and he shivered. So many malice could still hurt.

He tried to relax his body and sighed once again. His muscles were so tense from all those threatening persons around him that it was almost impossible.

Suddenly, two hands pushed abruptly his back and the kid let out a panicked scream when he fell in the water.

It was pleasantly cold and for a small moment, the child appreciated being underwater before he realised that he couldn't touch the ground, that his head wasn't above the water and that his lungs were burning.

He opened wide his mouth and panted, inhaling water and coughing underwater. His belly began to burn and it was painful. He felt angry too.

' _They hurt me_ ,' he thought.

' ** _They hurt us_** ,' he added and this time his voice was deeper. Heinous too.

He felt his consciousness fade slowly and his lungs and stomach began to burn harder.

_'I'll make them pay,_ ' he thought softly. ' _They are bad people..._ '

' ** _They are_** ,' his darker voice conceded. ' _ **We'll make them pay... Blood shall be spilled**_.'

' _But I don't like blood_ ,' he winced internally.

Blood was bad. It always hurt when his blood was spilled, even if his injuries were always short lived. That was probably why he was called a demon-child.

' _ **They hurt us!'**_

' _But... What would Jiji say if we hurt someone? He would call me a demon too...'_

' _ **Then you just have to become a demon...**_ '

The boy tensed and suddenly felt something graze his mind. His darker voice screeched heinously at the graze and the child blinked when he realised that he wasn't in the river anymore.

He could hear the birds chirp around him and he blinked again. The blue sky was the only thing he could see.

Another blink of his eyes and he noticed that he was now in a clearing. Maybe in some training grounds. His clothes were still soppy and looked like some kind of mud monster.

The birds chirps stopped suddenly and the child stilled. Whenever the animals stopped talking, it always meant something bad for him.

An adult shunshined in the middle of the clearing and the kid looked with curiosity at the adult's arms full of things.

"What's that?" He asked before wincing.

His throat hurt like he had tried to eat a kunai. Don't ask how he knew about that kind of feeling, he wasn't going to think about that time...

The adult walked toward the child, sat right in front of him and put a roll bandage between them. Then, he began to unroll it and put it around the boy's stomach.

The latter blinked and realised that in the meantime of asking his question, the adult had cleaned all his injuries and still hadn't answered him.

He was really fast.

The boy wanted to be as fast as him.

"What happened?" He asked.

His throat still hurt.

The adult didn't answer him and just sighed softly before patting the boy's stomach with his gloved hand. In fact, all his body was covered and the child was wondering how the adult hadn't melted from the furnace of the clearing.

"Did you... Save me?"

This time, the adult nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

The child felt something warm in his chest. It was like whenever he saw the Jiji in his apartment and they went to eat ramen at Ichiraku.

"I'm Naruto," he smiled brightly at the adult.

For the first time of his life, the adult didn't flinch when he heard his name. He didn't jump back nor ignore him now that he knew his name and Naruto couldn't help but feel hope.

Maybe this time, he wouldn't be all alone.

The adult wrote something on the ground with a stick and Naruto squinted his eyes before rubbing nervously his neck.

"I can't read it," he admitted and he blushed angrily. "But I'm not stupid, 'ttebayo!"

The adult nodded and pointed at his chest silently. Naruto tilted his head and observed him. The adult seemed to be trying to tell him something.

"Are we playing that game? Chara-something?" He asked while an excited grin stretched his lips.

His previous injuries were almost healed but he didn't want to tell it to the adult. He didn't want the adult to think of him as a monster. He seemed like a good person. Even if he dressed like a freak.

If he had some orange clothes, he'd be cooler. Because orange was a kick-ass colour. Everyone knew it.

The adult pointed at his chest once again and then drew the most adorable frog that Naruto had ever seen. Ever.

"Frog?" The child tilted his head and smiled brightly at the adult.

The latter nodded. He then wrote something next to the picture and put an 'equal' sign between the two scribbling.

"Frog?" Naruto repeated while he squatted in front of the kanjis.

The adult gave him a thumbs-up and the child grinned proudly.

"See? I'm not stupid, dattebayo!"

The adult nodded excitedly and stretched his hand before stopped his move. He had seen the child tense and preferred to not traumatise him further.

Naruto noticed his hesitation and his grin softened.

He didn't feel so alone now.

Today was a bright day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Papa and Mama.


	3. Papa and Mama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, I'm back with more fluff. And some twisted feeling that I can't really describe...
> 
> And as I don't really have something important to tell you, I'll let you read this chapter.

He looked around him and frowned.

The hidden village of the Sand and its surroundings were almost deserted at that hour of the day. The harsh sun from the desert made it so difficult to go outside that nobody left their house until a more tolerable hour.

So that made the masked shinobi extremely suspicious.

The Fourth Kazekage's frown increased when felt one of his advisors gulp loudly behind him.

It seemed that the masked stranger's kill intent was perturbing for the advisors.

The Kazekage made a mental note to put his advisors through regulars checks. They were too weak if a sole shinobi could scare what was supposed to be the strongest and wisest ninjas of Suna.

He began to stretch his chakra around him and the Golden Dust stirred around him while he eyed carefully the lone shinobi.

From the swift and soundless steps, it was a young but war seasoned ninja. He had guts too. Or he was loony.

The Kazekage didn't move an inch and let that stranger approach him. The masked shinobi had traversed the whole village without attempting anything and the Kazekage was curious.

Was he a nuke-nin wanting to plead asylum in Suna? Or was he a diplomat from another Hidden village?

The Kazekage's dark eyes narrowed and he observed attentively the shinobi's clothes.

Traditional jounin vest. It was worn down but carefully tended over. He could see that the shinobi had ripped it frequently and had repaired it every time.

Dark pants and sweater that covered his whole body. The shinobi didn't want to be identified. Or he was extremely sensible to the sun rays.

A dark scarf around the neck. And a porcelain mask with toad like features painted on it.

He looked a bit like a Hunter-nin.

The masked shinobi entered the Kazekage building and, without even hesitating or faltering in his confident steps, he walked to the Kazekage's office.

The Fourth's frown vanished and he placed a poker face on while the masked stranger opened his door.

Strangely, the security hadn't stopped the stranger. The Kazekage clicked his tongue with annoyance when he understood that it was because his guards were too weak. Suna really needed more power.

The shinobi stopped right in front of the Kazekage's desk and the Fourth raised an inquisitive brow. The silence was heavy and some of his advisors shifted nervously.

He was really going to make regulars checks on his shinobi once this meeting was finished. This was getting ridiculous.

"Who are you?" The Kazekage finally asked when he realised that the shinobi wasn't going to talk anytime soon.

The masked shinobi didn't answer him and the Kazekage sighed heavily. He slightly moved his fingers and the Golden Dust suddenly attacked the stranger. However the man swiftly ducked and avoided being crushed by the Golden Dust before shunshining and appearing right behind one of the petrified advisors, a kunai against the man's neck.

The Kazekage stilled for a second before urging his Golden Dust to simply strike the two men. But when the dust dispersed after surrounding the two, there wasn't any corpse nor blood on the ground.

The fourth frowned and folded his arms while his eyes glinted ominously. He didn't take it lightly when someone irrupted in his office and kidnapped one of his advisors, no matter how weak they were. If he was Kazekage, it was for something.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke was preoccupied for his brother's health.

Itachi hadn't slept in his room for the last four days and the younger Uchiha was slowly beginning to grow antsy. What if his brother was planning to leave the house?

Their father was already looking disapprovingly at Itachi's empty place when they had breakfast every morning and their mother was always looking distressed. Probably because she didn't know where he was.

And thus, Sasuke decided to go look for his brother and get him back to their house so their parents would be smiling and his father would recognise his talents.

All in all, it was a great plan.

Now, all that was left was to find where Itachi was.

Sasuke knew that Itachi's best friend was their cousin Shisui so he decided to begin his quest by asking the said teenager where his brother was and why he didn't come back home.

But Shisui's answer had been really strange. He had only ruffled his hair (something that Sasuke really hated because his hair wasn't anything like his brother's and taming it was a real pain in the ass) and told him that Itachi hadn't left to Village for a mission.

That angered Sasuke. If Itachi was still in the village then why wasn't he training in their compound?

Like every morning, Sasuke left their house after a last glance at Itachi's empty room and went to school. There, he ignored the girls who were looking at him intensively (girls were icky. He didn't like them and Shisui had said that they would give him cooties if he kissed them) and he sat next to a pink haired girl. The little girl glanced briefly from her scroll and scoffed lightly at him before going back to her reading. Sasuke glanced briefly at the seemingly difficult characters on the scroll and he folded his arms on the table before putting his head on them.

He observed silently the classroom and a tiny smile sprouted on his lips when he saw the Akimichi heir, Chouji, talk animatedly with the Nara heir, Shikamaru. They were best friends and Sasuke secretly wished to have a friendship like that with someone. However, there wasn't anyone in this class who could have that place in his life as everyone thought that he was a genius like Itachi and they all looked at him like they expected him to be the best at everything.

Sometimes, it was really difficult to keep calm.

The door opened suddenly and everyone stilled before relaxing when they realised that it was just the dead last Naruto.

Sasuke didn't hate Naruto, the boy already had it bad so the young Uchiha didn't want to be like the others who sneered at the boy. He too knew what he was to confront all those glares.

But when Naruto was confronted with hateful glares, Sasuke only had expectant ones.

And Naruto's way of dealing with it only forced Sasuke's admiration. Not that he was going to say anytime soon.

The blond was so stupid that he would think that Sasuke was his fan...

Something was dropped on his table and Sasuke was startled from his thoughts. He blinked slowly and glanced from the bento box wrapped in a familiar blue napkin to the wide and foxy grin that the infamous Naruto was giving him.

"You forgot your bento, Sasuke-teme!" The blonde told him with a cheery voice.

"Eh?" Sasuke retorted in a very un-Uchiha way.

He heard the pink haired girl sigh heavily and the young Uchiha tried to ignore his blushing cheeks.

"Your bento," Naruto insisted before he narrowed his eyes and put his hand on the dark haired boy. "You ok? You seem out of it!"

Sasuke swatted the hand and gulped, his face warming even more when he noticed that all the girls in the class were looking at him with speculative faces. Also, the Nara heir was smirking.

A smirking Nara never was good news. Never. Because when those stopped napping or complaining about how troublesome something could be, one had the right to panic.

Sasuke could still remember that time when Shiro, a civilian kid, had mocked Chouji's weight until the poor Akamichi had cried. Shikamaru went to talk with Shiro once the school was over and went back to Chouji with a light smirk on his face.

The next day, Shiro didn't come to school.

So Sasuke had all the rights to panic now that Shikamaru seemed interested in whatever was going on with Naruto and that bento box.

Sasuke frowned and glared at the said bento box. Why did Naruto know that he hadn't taken one? Normally, it was his brother who gave it to him.

Unless...

Sasuke's eyes widened and he sprang from his seat before taking a firm hold onto Naruto's arm and trailing behind him as he exited the classroom. They left like that, Naruto flailing because he had been surprised by Sasuke's sudden moves, and the teacher who had been at the door blinked slowly.

"Can someone explain me what the hell happened?" He asked as he glanced at the equally shocked class.

A sigh followed his question and the teacher, a Chuunin by the name of Takahiro, looked at the child who had sighed so heavily.

It was the pink haired girl. The child had placed her heavy scroll down and was kneading her rather large forehead while her green eyes were glaring daggers at the teacher like she was angry at his interruption.

"Isn't it obvious?" She answered with a light shrug while Nara Shikamaru snickered once (because doing it twice would have been a drag). "They are playing hooky. And with reason too if that box meant something."

"Sakura," Takahiro sighed as he felt himself grow by seconds in that damned class. "Go fetch them."

"Yes, sir," the little girl nodded once and left the classroom without anything else.

She passed right in front of the Yamanaka heir and the two girls' eyes met. Sakura frowned lightly and Yamanaka Ino briefly tilted her head before smirking. The pink haired then raised a thumb and left the classroom while Ino turned her head towards the Nara heir who was sitting two rows behind her.

"Twenty ryos that those two end together by the end of the Academy," she whispered cheekily.

"Troublesome," the Nara muttered before he yawned loudly. "Twenty-five that they get together by their first year as genins."

"Deal," Ino smirked. "Sakura said the same thing."

"Doesn't surprise me," Shikamaru shrugged. "She's a cunning girl. So troublesome..."

And indeed, Sakura was going to be the most troublesome kunoichi of Konoha once they graduated. But that, the Nara wouldn't know it until they passed their Chuunin exams.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When he had asked them to take care of Uzumaki Naruto, he had had just thought that it was that. Just a small favour that he asked them.

Not a A-rank mission that the Toad masked shinobi had someone managed to convince the Hokage to give them.

And thus, there they were. The two best shinobi of Konoha. Playing babysitter.

To a prankster who seemed to think of them as his personal slaves.

Uchiha Itachi was beginning to think that the Toad was the devil himself.

The fact that he still hadn't seen the shinobi's face made it even more probable. Hell, he could perfectly be Uchiha Madara.

That sadism was almost Uchiha. Or something like a Mist-nin could be proud of.

And yes, babysitting Naruto was that bad.

It was just that the kid never stopped. And thus, they had to take rolls on watching them. Itachi hadn't slept in his beds for days, it was now almost like an urge to go to his house, bathe in their private onsen and then sleep like the dead in his bed.

And if that time where Kakahi had collided against a lamppost during their nightly observations of Naruto's pranks wasn't a hallucination, then the Copy-nin needed the same too.

Itachi blinked wearily from his hiding place on a roof and he wanted to groan when he saw his little brother trail the Uzumaki out of the classroom and then run in the corridors until they got out of the school.

' _What are you doing, Sasuke?_ ' The Uchiha heir thought while he followed discreetly the two children.

He passed in front of the slumbering Kakashi and without any regrets walked with his muddied sandals on the forgotten Icha Icha book. Itachi could be a petty person when he wanted.

And that night where Kakashi had been late for his turn on watching Naruto was still fresh in his mind.

The two shinobi continued trailing the children and Itachi sighed when he noticed that Sasuke was taking Naruto to his favourite training ground. That meant only one thing.

Sasuke had found out what was going on.

"Maa," Kakashi said softly as he patted the teenager's shoulder once. "Don't sweat over it."

Itachi rolled his eyes. It was at times like these that the teenager realised how bad the silver haired was at relations.

Those were Naruto, his current mission and protégé, and his little brother. Who was known in the Uchiha compound for his growing brother complex.

That wasn't going to end well.

Don't sweat over it?

If by the end of the week he didn't end with white hair then he would be a lucky man.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Explosions could be heard somewhere far away.

He frowned and the sand shivered around him while a soft wind tousled his short hair. His eyes narrowed and he slowly raised a hand, his fingers slightly crooked and his lips pursed in a disgusted scowl.

The snake in front of him let out its reptilian tongue and tasted the air. Its beady eyes blinked quickly and the boy tilted his head. He took a deep breath and the snake coiled its body around itself, preparing itself to attack.

The boy's fingers twitched and another explosions resounded. He blinked and the snake hissed softly at him. That didn't deter the boy and his hand didn't shiver. The sand around them was hot and the air was slightly vibrating under the harsh sun of the Wind Country.

The boy let out his tongue and slowly dampened his lips. The snake did the same some seconds later. The smell of blood was pungent between them. The snake's body was red.

Like the blood that surrounded them.

The boy's lips moved silently and the snake's beady eyes stopped blinking.

They were in the instant where everything could change.

The boy didn't move. As did the snake.

The explosions had stopped.

He could feel someone approaching. The boy cocked his head and frowned. Those steps weren't like the ninjas of Suna. They were too heavy, not accustomed to walking on the shifting sand.

Another assassin?

His frown deepened and the sand around him rumble threateningly. The snake scurried away, trailing behind the corpse of a bloody fennec. The boy looked at the trail of blood left by the snake and wondered if the reptile would eat the ninja once he had killed it. He was curious now.

' _ **Spill his blood,**_ ' the only one who hadn't abandoned him said with its raspy voice in his head.

The boy pursed his lips and bit them lightly. The sand around him reeked of blood.

The smell made him sick.

The ninja was already in front of him. The boy stayed put, sitting cross-legged on the softly rumbling sand and he raised his head to glance at the future corpse.

It was an adult, masked and wearing clothes from another country.

 _'An assassin_ ,' he concluded.

 _ **'Spill his blood,**_ ' the other added.

The boy could feel his blood rumble and rush to his ears. A mad smile began to stretch his dry lips. His eyes widened and he felt the now familiar bloodlust take its hold on his consciousness.

' _I'll kill him_ ,' the boy thought and the sand raised to his command.

It was everywhere and the masked ninja didn't have any chance to survive his attack.

 _ **'Spill his blood!**_ ' roared the other.

The boy nodded.

The sand sprang to attack the enemy and the boy smirked. Blood was already everywhere. The pungent smell covered everything and he blinked. He wanted to cry and he didn't know why.

' _ **Stop whining**_ ,' the other chided. ' ** _That wasn't enough blood_**.'

The sand settled and the boy widened his eyes when he saw the assassins still standing. His dark sweater was now mattered and the enemy threw it to the ground, he had a slight injury on his arm. The boy could now see that the adult was only wearing a mesh-armor under his sweater and that he didn't have any scar on his arms.

As he was wearing a scarf and a mask, the boy couldn't know if he had scars somewhere else.

He felt some hope. Maybe that stranger was like him, a monster who couldn't be touched.

But then, the hope was squished.

It didn't matter if that stranger had the same abilities as him. He was there to kill  _him_.

The stranger raised the arm who hadn't been touched by the attack and passed a finger on the injury. He tilted his head and the boy frowned. The ninja passed then his bloody finger on his neck and the boy tensed.

He had felt the sudden surge of power. Seals.

He hated seals.

' _ **Kill him! Kill him!**_ '

He obliged.

His sand began to swirl viciously around them and he narrowed his eyes when he noticed that the assassin wasn't even trying to avoid the attack. Or to protege himself against it. He just stood there, unmoving and with his finger against his neck.

And suddenly, the other talked.

"Gaara," the masked shinobi said.

He had a raspy voice, as if he had shouted for hours, and it conveyed happiness. Almost like the assassin was genuinely happy to see him.

The sand condensed into a spear and the boy twitched imperceptibly his head.

That voice reminded him of Yashamaru.

 _ **'That traitor is dead! Kill him!**_ '

The boy's lips quivered slightly and he took a sharp breath. His face lost all emotion and he just looked with dead eyes at the ninja.

"Who are you?" Gaara asked.

The assassin scratched abashedly his neck and laughed softly.

"Right!" He exclaimed and the boy blinked. He wasn't accustomed to someone shouting happily at him. Normally, it was more of a horrified cry for help. "You don't know me yet! But don't worry, Gaara, I won't disappoint you, 'ttebayo!"

Disappoint him?

The boy cocked his head and blinked. He was intrigued.

"You can call me Kaeru," the masked ninja added cheerily. Gaara could picture him smiling brightly and he frowned. "I'll be your teacher, dattebayo!"

"Teacher," Gaara deadpanned and the sand shifted threateningly around them.

Kaeru didn't seem fazed by it and laughed happily once again.

"Not in ninjutsu," he explained. His raspy voice creaked faintly when he added, "you don't need my help for that, Gaara. You're an amazing shinobi already. But I know that you need help for something else."

The boy frowned and his eyes narrowed. So he needed help?

Was this another plan from his father so he would be his perfect weapon?

He felt his stomach churn.

"What if you could sleep without fearing that it would result in you going into a rampage?" Kaeru added and this time, his voice was serious and deep. "What if you could reason with the voice in your head that always asks for blood?"

Gaara blinked. He noticed that the assassin, Kaeru, was standing just where the fennec had been killed by the snake. The trail of blood wasn't visible anymore. The only blood left was the one running on the ninja's forearm.

' _ **Kill him**_!' The other's voice was still as imperious as ever.

But for once, the boy didn't want to follow his order. He blinked again.

"How?" He asked.

The adult sighed and suddenly sat on the sand. It was hot and under Gaara's control. The boy was slightly shocked to see a stranger trust him so much as the sit on his sand.

Shocked and honoured.

"This will take some time," Kaeru specified. "And I won't be able to stay long here... So listen attentively, Gaara. You're really smart so I'm pretty sure that you'll understand quickly, 'ttabayo!"

The sand around the boy shifted and pushed him discreetly towards the adult. Then, it began to grow and casted a shade on the two shinobi. Suna's sun wasn't something to underestimate.

The pungent smell had disappeared.

Kaeru wasn't bleeding anymore.

Gaara wanted to cry and he didn't know why.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

A week had passed and he was slowly growing restless. Of course, he had two amazing babysitters. His Papa and his Mama, as Kaeru had called them, and they were both two kick-ass ninjas.

Also, they didn't despise him and he liked being able to be a kid around them. The white haired man's reactions were always hilarious whenever he used all those tricks that Kaeru-san had taught him. And the black haired man was great too. Whenever he ruffled his hair, the kid liked to close his eyes and imagine that it was Kaeru-san who did it.

Sasuke-teme's brother had the same size as Kaeru-san after all. But Kaeru-san was maybe smaller.

As the days passed, he couldn't remember precisely how Kaeru-san looked. And that was killing him.

Naruto sighed heavily and he ignored the glare from Sasuke-teme. The dark haired boy hadn't stopped pestering him since he had discovered that his beloved big brother was currently staying with him. Even if the young Uchiha knew that a shinobi had to always put the mission before his life, he couldn't help but envy Naruto who could stay with Itachi without being pushed aside.

Naruto blinked wearily, trying to stay awake and he sighed dreamily when he remembered that Kaeru-san was supposed to come back that night. The pretty pink haired girl that was sitting between him and that idiot of Sasuke glanced briefly at him before getting back to her dusty scroll.

Naruto knew that it was a scroll of Medical jutsus. He knew it because he had stolen it some weeks ago with Kaeru-san. That had been funny.

He yawned loudly and blinked away the tears. His teacher ignored him and the blonde was happy with it.

If he was ignored and despised, that meant that he was free to do whatever he wanted.

He looked wistfully at the window and frowned. It was raining heavily and he could already feel his hair curling from the humidity in the classroom. Sasuke-teme's hair was too and Naruto snickered when he saw the boy try to tame a curl on his forehead that always bounced whenever he tried to read something. It was funny. And ridiculous for someone who always tried to look serious.

Naruto balanced his pen on his nose and froze when he reached the perfect equilibrium. The pen wasn't even moving on the tip of his nose and the blond grinned widely.

It seemed that Kaeru-san's exercises on chakra control and meditation were way more efficient that those of the Academy. He wanted to see the adult and show how much progress he had made during his leave.

But first, Naruto mused grimly, he really needed to get out of this scruffy classroom.

The teacher was droning something about the Fourth and Naruto snorted. His pen shivered but stayed on his nose.

Whenever they talked about the Fourth, the kid couldn't help but wonder what had happened to that brilliant ninja. Why had he died fighting against the Nine Tails? Wasn't he supposed to be the strongest and wisest ninja in Konoha?

If it had been Naruto, he would have make the Nine Tails his friend. So the beast didn't attack the village anymore and would protect it with him.

That would be so kick-ass!

His grin widened.

Something poofed softly under his desk and Naruto glanced at his legs. His pen fell and rolled under the desk so he had to squat so he could find it. The kid blinked when he noticed that his nose was at mere inches from a little toad.

"Gamakichi?" Naruto whispered softly.

The toad nodded and beckoned him to get closer. Naruto obeyed and sat on the ground, his nose scrunched when he noticed that his head was close to Sasuke-teme's legs. The pink haired girl's legs weren't anywhere close to him and Naruto blinked before he realised that she was sitting cross-legged on her chair.

"What is it?" The blonde kid asked as he shook his head slowly so he would stop looking at the girl's chair.

"Message from the Boss," Gamakichi explained with his chirpy voice. He had recently grown from his tadpole phase so his voice was still childish.

Naruto's eyes sparkled and he fought to stay silent while he waited for the message.

"It says," the little toad added. "I just left Suna and I'm traveling the quickest I can. Wait for me at Ichiraku, 'kay?"

"Will he have presents?" The blond asked with sparkling blue eyes. "Like Suna ramen? Do they have ramen there? If they don't, that would suck..."

Gamakichi snorted and poofed away without answering him. Naruto pouted and went back to his chair, his eyebrows furrowed while he thought of his adult friend and almost family-figure.

When Kaeru-san had told him that Sasuke-teme's big brother and that the stranger with white hair were his momentary Papa and Mama, Naruto had been torn between happiness and sadness. Kaeru-san had never said anything about what he felt. The blond boy didn't even know if the masked adult thought ill or something else (worse? Better?) of him.

' _No_ ,' Naruto thought and he frowned harshly while he gritted his teeth.

He shouldn't be having those thoughts. Kaeru-san had taken him under his wing, he (or she) had helped him whenever he needed help, had taught him things that they didn't teach at school or never wanted to teach to him. The adult had always been there for Naruto.

But at the same time, Kaeru-san had never talked to him. He could be mute, the boy mused. Or he could be trying to hide his true identity so he wouldn't be bothered by Naruto if he were to cut their ties.

That scared the boy. Some nights, when sleep seemed to run away from him, Naruto stayed put in his bed and wondered about his future.

Would the Toad masked adult be still in his life? Or would he abandon him? Betray him like the adults in the orphanage had?

' _ **He doesn't like us**_ ,' his darker self whispered softly.

 _'No_!' Naruto insisted.

Kaeru-san liked him. He had saved his life more than once and he protected him from the shadows. Naruto knew it. He had heard his two 'parents' talking about the shinobi.

' _ **Then why didn't he ever touch us?**_ '

Naruto scowled and closed his eyes. It was true that Kaeru-san had never since their first meeting touched him. And even when Naruto stumbled and needed something to balance himself, the masked jounin always used a stick or something around them to help him.

He had never ruffled his hair. Nor patted affectionately his head.

Naruto wanted to feel the adult's hand on his head. He wanted to feel loved, wanted.

He craved it.

 _ **'We should just take it by force**_ ,' his darker self muttered darkly.

Naruto tightened his fists and took a deep breath. His belly was getting warmer by seconds and he could feel his blood rush to his ears.

"Oi, dead last."

A silence, followed by a little tap on his forehead.

Naruto blinked vividly and glanced at the boy who had called him with that irksome nickname.

"What?!" The blond frowned and raised from his seat, ready to punch the little punk.

"School has ended," Uchiha Sasuke explained as he rolled his dark eyes. "You promised that you'd let me see my big brother."

Naruto blinked and felt the heat in his belly recede. He smiled brightly at the annoyed Uchiha and jumped to the door.

"Let's go!" The blond exclaimed happily. "I race you to Ichiraku, Sasuke-teme!"

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When the Toad masked jounin came back from wherever he had gone, Kakashi had been surprised.

The man wasn't wearing his jounin vest anymore. He just had a mesh-armor and a grey cape covering his upper body. For a man who had always hidden all of his body, that was a surprising sight.

But Kakashi didn't let his surprise show and he just sipped discreetly his cup of sake. He could see from his good eye that Uchiha Itachi was talking softly with his younger brother and that the Uchiha siblings were actually having a blast. They were both smiling after all.

And Itachi's stress marks on his face had diminished.

That was good. Kakashi gulped his sake and licked his lips dry while he discreetly fixed his mask.

On his Sharingan eye's side, Naruto was looking gloomily at his ramen. The broth was still hot and the noodles looked delicious. Not something that would have provoked such a depressed reaction.

Kakashi glanced at the cause of the kid's gloom and he almost snorted. Of course, it was Kaeru's fault.

The adult was actually sitting on the end of his stool, almost as if he really didn't want to be near Naruto. And the boy, being the extremely sensitive child that he had always been, had noticed it.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and put his empty cup of sake down. The sound was startling and the Uchiha siblings stopped talking to look at him. The Konoha ANBU ignored their inquisitive eyes (Sasuke was looking more and more like his brother on that point...) and he swiftly stood up.

"That was a nice mission," he commented in a laid back tone. "Call me again if you want a babysitter."

The Toad masked shinobi nodded silently and Kakashi cocked his head. If he had evaluated correctly the stranger, everything would end well and Naruto would stop looking so depressed.

"But," the ANBU drawled and his grey eye flashed cockily. "If you keep neglecting him, I'll become his favourite person. And who knows... I'll even become his father."

Itachi snorted. He could see where his brief partner was trying to lead the Toad. But that had almost made him laugh. Naruto had despised Kakashi during the first day of the week, saying that he was too boring to be his idol's father.

Naruto lifted his eyes from his broth of ramen and glanced with hopeful eyes at Kaeru. The latter's head was turned toward Kakashi so he didn't notice the boy's hopeful and at the same time sad face.

Kaeru clicked his tongue loudly.

Naruto quickly looked down and sniffed discreetly. He had known the man for enough time to know that whenever he clicked his tongue, it meant that he found the discussion ridiculous. That or he was pissed at something.

So the idea of being Naruto's father was ridiculous for Kaeru.

Naruto sniffed again and tensed when he felt something that he wasn't accustomed plop on his head. He raised and crossed his eyes, trying to find out what was on his head before he noticed that Kaeru was actually just behind him.

The jounin had an arm raised and his hand was on Naruto's hair. Or rather, on the beanie that he had just put on the child's head.

The young blond slowly raised his hand and froze midway when he felt the strange feeling once again. Kaeru-san was ruffling his hair through the beanie.

He felt tears announce their unwanted arrival in his eyes and he quickly dipped his head so he could rub them.

"Well," Itachi drawled from his spot with a satisfied smirk. "This is proof enough."

Kakashi was happy that his mask hid his lips. Grinning that happily wasn't proper for a shinobi.

But a blushing Naruto with a frog beanie was simply a sight too cute to not smile fondly at him.

「See?」 Kaeru wrote on the Ichiraku stall with a stick and some water. It made his writing even worse. 「I'm his favourite person ever!」

Kakashi hesitated between smiling or facepalming.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When he had heard someone knock gently at his door, the Fourth Kazekage hadn't expected to see his younger child open the door and enter quietly his office.

"Gaara," he greeted his son with his habitual stern voice.

Since his wife's dead, he couldn't have find the time to see and play with his children. Something that was subconsciously tormenting him.

"Father," the redhead retorted coolly.

He didn't have anymore that air of quiet madness.

The Fourth wondered if that jounin traveler had actually helped his son like he had promised on their first meeting.

"I want to learn more about Mother," Gaara added quietly.

The Fourth inclined his head and closed his eyes.

Even if he had been persuaded that his mother hated him, he still wanted to know more about her. As his father, that saddened him so much that he couldn't breathe. But as his Kazekage, that announced improvement for the boy's control on his chakra.

"Very well," he relented in a sigh.

He joined his hand on his desk and tilted his head.

"Take a seat, Gaara, I don't have any appointments today and it will be a long story..."

Gaara took his sand gourd and put it against a wall before he sat just in front of his father's desk.

The Fourth Kazekage took a deep breath.

"Her name was Karura..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Growing. (Or when Kaeru really fucked up)


	4. Growing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided on a double update tonight. I don't even know why, it never happened before...

Uchiha Sasuke was confused beyond reason.

He looked at the kneeling boy by his side before his dark eyes ended on the squatting adult. The masked jounin, Kaeru or something along those lines, had a kunai in his hand and was tracing something on the ground. Something that Sasuke simply couldn't decipher. Or understand.

While the other boy nodded vividly and acclaimed the adult for his brilliant plan.

It was just a picture made of lines and crosses.

Something that Sasuke couldn't read. But Naruto could.

Uchiha Sasuke didn't like being left behind and he sat on the hard ground, his eyes narrowed while he tried to understand what the masked jounin had tried to convey with those abstract lines. As he focused all his attention on the drawings, he didn't notice that Naruto had been startled by his move and was watching him with incredulous blue eyes.

"What are you doing, Teme?" The little blond asked while he eyed suspiciously the other kid.

Sasuke didn't answer. He was now frowning and he absentmindedly drew the same lines as Kaeru's while he bit his lips pensively. He remembered how the adult had traced it and as he did the same, the dark haired child noticed that the lines inter-crossed with a pattern. It felt familiar too.

"Oi!" Naruto said as he pushed the young Uchiha. "Don't ignore me!"

Sasuke let the other push him and followed the move before going back to his sitting position. His finger was now drawing the last line and his lips were stretched in a thin line.

"Almost got it," he muttered between his gritted teeth.

Naruto blinked and he frowned. He didn't understand what was so fascinating for Sasuke. He grumbled under his breath and observed silently the focused face of his classmate (and sometimes friend. But Sasuke was still a teme). The young blond felt something move and he quickly glanced at the masked jounin, peering through the border of his green and dusty beanie.

Kaeru-san was now laying on the ground, his head on his folded arms and his right leg leaning bent on his left. He looked relaxed and Naruto felt himself relax as he observed his (friend? Family-figure? Father-figure?) friend rest in silence.

"Of course!" Sasuke suddenly exclaimed and Naruto blinked.

In a blink of his eyes, Kaeru-san was back on his feet and looking down at them. The adult was now cocking his head, his porcelain mask shining softly under the warm morning sun. They were on summer holiday and Naruto had wanted to spend more time with his friend. Thus, he had forced Kaeru-san to agree on meeting every morning right before the sun rose. But Naruto hadn't expected to arrive to their meeting point and to find Kaeru with the youngest Uchiha in tow.

Sasuke-teme hadn't even explained why he was there. He had just stood there in silence and had glared from time to time to Kaeru-san. Almost as if he had been forced to be there.

Naruto scoffed. As if someone could hate being by Kaeru-san's side. The jounin was too amazing to be hated.

"Of course what, teme?" Naruto asked oh so gently.

The dark haired boy ignored him and he looked hard at the masked man.

"It's a plan of Konoha's sewers," Sasuke stated with a triumphant smirk.

Naruto rolled his eyes and Kaeru gave the young Uchiha a thumbs-up.

Of course it was the sewers! If not, how would have Kaeru-san be able to get into Konoha without being apprehended by Sasuke-teme's older brother?

Uchiha Itachi could be a scary man when he was angry. Naruto shuddered when he remembered the time where Kaeru had pranked the Uchiha heir and had vanished, letting him deal alone with the angry Itachi. That hadn't been a great experience.

And that reminded him that he still hadn't avenged himself.

The blond kid eyed the adult and he smirked when he saw that Kaeru had finally stopped wearing his heavy black sweater. He had now a thin (and still black. The man needed some colour) undershirt with long sleeves under his green jounin vest, a scarf and he wore his typical black pants with sandals. Bandages tied the extremities of his pants so it wouldn't obstruct his moves.

From what Naruto had found out after all this time by Kaeru's side, the jounin hated when his skin was shown. That was also why they had never went to an onsen. (Also, there was the issue of his mask. Naruto could understand that Kaeru liked to wear a mask. He was a kick-ass ninja after all)

Naruto smiled foxily and tilted his head. He already had the perfect vengeance in his mind.

"But what do you plan to do in that part of the sewers?" Sasuke asked and Naruto stopped scheming to smirk at the dark haired boy.

"That's a secret between me and Kaeru-san, 'ttebayo!" He exclaimed cheerily. "Why? You jealous?"

The young Uchiha rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Like I would," he retorted. Sasuke glanced at the adult that still hadn't moved during all their little banter and he sighed heavily. "But my big brother told me to stay with Him... So it would be preferable if I knew where we are going."

"Eh?" Naruto cocked his head and glanced at Kaeru. "You agreed to babysit the teme?"

The jounin sighed and softly bopped the blond's head. Naruto smiled goofily when he felt those fingers rudely rub his head through the thick hat and he carefully hid his satisfied smile. But that didn't seem to fool Kaeru and the adult coughed heavily, clearly waiting for something.

"Okay," Naruto muttered as he looked at his sandals. "I'm sorry to have called Sasuke-teme a teme..."

Kaeru coughed softly and the blonde winced.

"Really?" He said as he looked up at the adult with pleading eyes. "But if I stop calling that, he will forget that he's a teme!"

The jounin snorted and Naruto nodded while his lips stretched in a small smile.

"That's true," the kid accepted. "One cannot forget his true nature so easily..."

Sasuke grunted and he facepalmed. Why had he followed Itachi's demand? Being with Naruto for more than a hour was already taxing. He really feared what would happen during their summer holiday. The young Uchiha looked up and noticed that the masked jounin was now sitting cross-legged and clapping softly while Naruto, that blond goofball was smiling bashfully.

"Yeah," the boy said with eyes shining with pride. "I'm getting better at understanding your teachings, Kaeru-san!"

Kaeru tilted his head and Naruto's smile widened even more. His blue eyes shined with pure happiness and Sasuke furrowed his brows. Why was the idiot smiling like that when his mentor had just moved his head a little?

"Look, Sasuke!" Naruto suddenly said as he took the boy's hand and pushed him towards the adult. "Kaeru-san is smiling!"

Sasuke blinked.

"He's wearing a mask," he deadpanned.

"Still!" Naruto insisted. "He's smiling, dattebayo!"

Sasuke facepalmed.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The sound of fighting disturbed his sleep. He opened blearily his eyes and yawned loudly while the fight outside intensified. He heard some cusses and then the familiar sound of a body falling followed.

He glanced at the alarm clock and raised his eyebrows when he saw the ungodly early hour.

' _They were really fast today_ ,' he thought as the door of his bedroom opened with a small creak.

The light was harsh on his sensible eyes and he recoiled when he noticed that this time there were two persons in his bedroom, one of which he didn't know. But that brief instant of fear was quickly forgotten when he heard a familiar and bright voice.

"There you are! I missed you, dattebayo!"

He blinked and stretched softly his lips. The person who had called him noticed it and smiled brightly at him before pushing another person towards the bed.

"This is Sasuke," the first person explained before he shrugged. "He's a jerk but he's trying to get over it. So if he's annoying you, just tell me and I'll kick his ass!"

"Like you could," the second scoffed. But he didn't try to escape from the first's hands. "I'm Sasuke, you?"

He blinked, his dark eyes taking in the sight of that juvenile face with equally dark eyes and hair before he glanced at the first person and met those fascinating blue eyes. He remembered that the sky had the exact colour just after a storm and really wanted to see if he could make that colour in one of his pieces.

"Where is your father?" He asked and as always the blond blushed and looked nervously around him.

The Sasuke boy blinked, he seemed angered by something but quickly recomposed his face as an amused smirk took place on his lips. He was now smirking at the nervous blond. The latter was a blubbering mess and he gulped loudly before he clasped his hands and drilled his sky blue eyes on him.

" _Kaeru_ -san," he stressed over the name to remind him that no, he wasn't his father even if they both knew that he considered the adult as such, "is with your brother. He wanted to tell him something in private so we went to your bedroom. I wanted you to meet Sasuke."

He nodded silently and observed the two boys. Short stature, they didn't really move like seasoned ninjas and he sighed softly. They really didn't mean anything bad for him and that was a pleasing thought. His lips stretched even more and he jumped from his bed to stop just in front of the Sasuke boy, his nose at mere inches from the boy's nose.

"He looks like a little girl," he said absentmindedly.

The blond snorted and he began to laugh so hard that he ended on the ground crying.

"Yeah!" The blond said between spams of laugh. "He does look like one!"

Sasuke scoffed and pushed him harshly before he stormed out of the room.

"What happened?" He asked as he blinked softly.

"Don't worry," the blond told him as he rubbed his eyes. His laughing fit had finally stopped. "He's really easy to anger those days."

"I see," he cocked his head and rubbed pensively his chin. That reminded him of something that he had read in those medical scrolls. "Like a pregnant woman, right?"

The blond began to laugh even harder than before.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"I hate you," Sasuke stated gloomily as he stopped right in front of the masked jounin.

The man froze and slowly turned to face him. There was something strange about his stiffness and Sasuke frowned. From what he had seen before, Kaeru was a shinobi who was never fazed by something. But right now, the Toad ninja was frozen in front of him.

The young Uchiha couldn't even hear him breath and he felt his pulse increase when he noticed the blood on the jounin's vest.

"Kaeru-san?"

Sasuke felt his heart beat once again when the jounin sharply turned his head to look at the shinobi who had called him. It was a young boy wearing an ANBU-like uniform and with a small frown on his boyish features.

"Who is it?" The boy asked and Sasuke kept silent.

He wanted to see if the masked jounin would finally talk. Or if he would struck the boy down. But the Toad didn't do any of that and merely shook his head with a small click of his tongue.

"I see," the boy nodded with a small smile. "You must be Naruto-kun's friend then."

Sasuke acquiesced stiffly and glanced discreetly at the masked jounin. It was almost as if the man was trying to ignore him.

"Hey," the young Uchiha called and Kaeru turned his head to look at him. "Didn't you hear me? I hate you. You took me here with you because you knew that this boy would call me names, right? That's why you were smiling before."

The tension was back and Sasuke noticed from the corner of his eyes that the other boy was white-faced. So he wasn't the only one being pressured by the impossibly intense pressure from the normally laid-back Kaeru. The masked jounin was then suddenly by the boy's side and tapped on his shoulder with an irregular pattern.

' _Morse code_ ,' Sasuke found out.

"Okay," the boy took a deep breath and smiled warily at the young Uchiha. "If we don't see each other after your little chat, I'll give you my name. I'm Shin."

Sasuke sharply nodded and carefully eyed the adult who hadn't moved from his spot during all this time. The boy named Shin shunshined away, probably in the bedroom where Naruto and the other brat were. And left Sasuke all alone with the masked jounin.

Oh  _joy_.

The adult sighed heavily and put his kunai in his pouch before he took off his vest and threw it on the ground. The vest landed with a soft noise and Sasuke blinked when he realised that the clothe had landed on a pool of blood. Kaeru hadn't let them (Naruto and him) see him fight and as such, Sasuke hadn't really realised that the jounin had killed whoever had been in the corridors of the sewers until now. Even if there weren't any corpses laying around. The dark scarf followed the jounin vest and the Uchiha looked at the adult.

Kaeru was still wearing his mask and the black undershirt along with his pants. Sasuke didn't understand why he had taken off his vest and scarf but his eyes suddenly caught notice of something red and glowing on the shinobi's neck.

"Is that a seal?" He asked with curiosity.

Kaeru nodded and swiftly nicked one of his fingers before he put it right on his seal. Sasuke didn't move.

He knew that seals could be dangerous but Itachi had told him to trust the Toad shinobi and he was going to do it. The glow of the seal dimmed a bit and Sasuke blinked. That was it?

But the Uchiha had talked too soon as he was suddenly pulled by the front of his shirt and lifted until his feet left the ground. He let out a surprised cry when he was suddenly nose to the cold porcelain mask.

" _ **Don't**_ ," Kaeru said and Sasuke gasped in surprise and fright. The adult had a deep and frightening voice.

It was almost like a demon.

" _ **Ever use those words so lightly**_ ," the jounin added in a growl. "You're underestimating the power of that word..."

Sasuke blinked and he began to claw at the shinobi's hand. His shirt was slowly suffocating him and he wanted to get out of the ninja's strike zone.

"Let... Me... Go!" He shouted as he kicked viciously the adult in his stomach.

But it was meaningless as Kaeru's stomach seemed made of steel and didn't even bulge with Sasuke's kick. However, the Toad ninja let the kid go and watched him totter on his feet before he took a defensive stance. It was the first kata in the Uchiha style and Itachi had been the one to teach him. Sasuke gritted his teeth and resolved himself to survive no matter what so he could tell his brother that the Toad masked shinobi was dangerous.

"Words like ' _ **I hate you**_ ' shouldn't be said so lightly," Kaeru scolded with his deep and frightening voice. "It leads to a dark and hateful path that I'd rather no see you wander.  _ **Is that clear, Sasuke?**_ "

"W-what?" Sasuke stumbled over his words and his hands dropped slightly. But he quickly got over his surprise and went back to the kata.

"I had a friend like you," Kaeru purred darkly and Sasuke shivered. He could have swore that the masked jounin was an actual demon. Who knows he was maybe the Ninetailed Fox. "He used those words lightly until he believed them... He ended deserting our village."

Sasuke was now shaking in his sandals and his eyes widened in horror when he saw the adult take off his undershirt and reveal his torso. In any other situation, the dark haired boy would have thought that Kaeru was trying to do something freaky to him.

But the scare from his previous words and the sight of that heavy scar on the Toad shinobi were enough to stop that kind of thoughts from crossing the young Uchiha's mind.

"But that was just after he almost succeeded in killing me," Kaeru added and his voice rumbled ominously in the bloodied corridor. " _ **Do you understand, Sasuke?**_ "

The dark haired boy didn't answer and watched with horror that slightly tanned chest with the almost circular scar right on the man's pectoral. An injury like that would have killed a shinobi. It should have killed him.

Unless Kaeru was more than he let it show.

A shinobi stronger than they thought, waiting for the perfect occasion to strike. He was already friends with the idiot Naruto and Itachi. Itachi who didn't know about the Toad's true abilities. Itachi who trusted the Toad.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and fear and his pupils began to swirl. The darkness in his eyes was progressively replaced by bloody red and the boy winced when the pain of his eyes began too much for him to conceal it.

" _ **Do you understand, Sasuke?**_ " Kaeru's deep voice insisted.

Red eyes with a single tomoe met equally red eyes with cross-like pupils and Sasuke took a sharp breath.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"I fucked up."

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from the not-so-urgent report of Itachi's extremely secret mission and he sighed heavily. The old Hokage put his two elbows on his desk and leaned his chin on his joined hand.

"Please," Sarutobi said with an amiable smile. "Tell me how having a six years old Uchiha awakening his Sharingan and being so traumatised that he refuses to get out of his room and all of that because you thought that taking him with you in a highly secret place was a good idea can be summarised as  _I fucked up_?"

The young man flinched from his seat and he looked at his legs clad in black before he hopefully looked up and met the Hokage's dark glare.

"What can I say?" Kaeru muttered as he gloomily pouted. "I'm still Naruto and you know how Sasuke can just set me off. Also, he needed that wake-up call."

" _Naruto_ ," the Third hissed angrily as he slammed his hands on his desk. "The young Sasuke won't have to pass through what your Sasuke had to! Telling that hate is not the solution when he doesn't even have something that he really hates is meaningless!"

"I'm pretty sure that he hates eating anything sweet..."

The Hokage didn't appreciate that answer at all.

The blonde laughed nervously and glanced at the closed door and windows. He was in the Hokage's office and nobody would notice it if the old man decided to kill him in a fit of anger. Not that Kaeru didn't understand, he had provoked Sasuke until the poor boy had awakened his Sharingan. Something that happened only if an Uchiha was stressed or shocked over the loss of someone.

And he was pretty much sure that he hadn't killed or menaced someone that Sasuke liked. Come on, Uchiha Itachi was on a mission outside of the village and the young Naruto had been somewhere else.

Sarutobi sighed heavily and massaged his forehead. His wrinkles increased as he frowned at the blonde.

"Don't even try to evade this discussion, young man," the Hokage chided with a stern voice. "Did you even say that you were sorry to the kid?!"

Kaeru laughed bashfully and slowly shook his head.

"No," he admitted meekly. "Because I knew that he wouldn't have heard it. Also, Naruto was there too."

"What about Naruto?" Sarutobi asked with weariness. "Did you traumatise him too?"

Kaeru's blue eyes widened in shock and he jumped on his feet to point his finger at the old man.

"How dare you imply that I'd traumatise him!" He exclaimed before he added with a bright and goofy smile. "I'll make him happy and then he'll become the happiest Hokage ever!"

"Didn't you say last week that you wanted to make him the strongest Hokage ever?" The Third Hokage deadpanned as he took a whiff of his kiseru.

"That too of course!" Kaeru exclaimed with a bright smile. "I'll make him become the best Hokage ever, dattebayo!"

"But first, go and make sure that the Uchiha doesn't stay in his room scared out of his wits!" Sarutobi screeched.

The blond shinobi cackled happily and swiftly jumped through a window while he put back his mask on his face. The Third Hokage grumbled under his breath and went back to Itachi's report.

"Sir?" He heard his secretary call him through the closed doors and he gave a slight grunt so she could open the door and peer her head. "We just got a strange message from Suna..."

"Suna?" Hiruzen repeated and he scowled when he remembered that the last shinobi from Konoha who had gone there had been Kaeru. "What the hell did that fool do this time?"

"Well..." The old woman hesitated visibly and she bit nervously her lips before she added, "the Kazekage wants to talk to you privately and plans on staying in Konoha. He's waiting for an answer, sir."

"So even the Kazekage couldn't resist Kaeru's charms," the Hokage muttered as he scuffled through all the things on his desk until he found paper and a pen. "What's next? Orochimaru will fall in love?"

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Naruto didn't like waking up. It meant stopping dreaming and going out of his bed to get a quick breakfast before he had to go to school. In short, it was awful to wake up.

And even more when he was just a little kid living in a dingy apartment without aircon. There were times during summer where Naruto had slept outside because it was cooler than his bedroom. Also, his apartment was tiny and didn't have a lot of furnitures. Just a sofa with dust and fleas living there (Naruto never used it. It had been a ' _present_ ' from the former owner of the apartment and the boy wasn't strong enough to get it out), a bed (it was getting smaller and smaller as the years passed. Naruto was saving some of the ridicule pocket money he had to buy a new one) and a refrigerator.

Naruto used to let all his other things litter on the ground.

He used to.

As he used to not have a lot of furnitures. And to not have a lot of decorations on his walls.

But once he had met the Toad masked jounin, all had changed.

Now, Naruto liked to wake up. It meant that a new surprise waited for him in the kitchen.

Once, it had been a little table and a stool so he could eat normally. And before that, some cutlery.

It was as if Kaeru-san hated watching those naked walls with humidity stains on it and tried to lighten his apartment. Naruto liked that thought because it always made him think that the adult cared about his well-being.

His alarm clock rang and Naruto bolted from his bed with a happy shout. He quickly showered and made sure that his clothes were clean before he ceremoniously put his favourite beanie on his head and pranced to the kitchen. As he pranced happily, he passed in front of all the photographies of his previous pranks and he almost stopped in front to his favourite picture.

It was pretty simple. It had been taken the day when Kaeru-san had given him his favourite beanie and the old man with a mask not as cool as Kaeru-san's had been the one to take it. There were only Naruto and Kaeru in it, the adult ruffling the boy's hair through his hat and Naruto smiling happily with a small blush.

Naruto loved that picture dearly. Not that he'd admit aloud.

His smile widened and he ran to the kitchen before he jumped on his stool. At the other side of the diminutive table, the toad masked shinobi was carefully watering a potted plant and Naruto cocked his head.

His blue eyes traveled from his plate full of rice with small vegetables, fluffy omelette and chicken bits to the silent adult.

"What kind of plant is it?" The kid asked as he wolfed down his breakfast.

It was delicious and still warm. One of those day, Naruto was going to ask Kaeru how he always got his breakfast ready by the time he was up.

Kaeru tilted slightly his head and patted his kunai pouch before he clicked his tongue. He seemed to remember where he had put whatever he was looking for because he took a small notebook from his jounin vest as well as a pen. He swiftly wrote his answer and went back to his plant.

「A cherry tomatoes plant」

Naruto raised his eyebrows and glanced at the small potted plant before he read once again the note.

"Really? I thought that tomatoes were some kind of vine-like plant," he muttered pensively as he chewed a bit of the heavenly fluffy omelette.

「Normal tomatoes are. But cherry tomatoes are different. And this one is a present for Sasuke.」

"Ah," Naruto nodded and emptied his plate before he put it down with a satisfied sigh. "That would explain why he was that scared the other day. What did you do?"

「Just a little chat.」 Kaeru waved his hand in the air as if it wasn't that important and Naruto decided to believe him.

But still, something was perturbing him.

"But why cherry tomatoes?" He asked as he eyed the potted plant. Maybe it had some unknown abilities that he didn't know?

Plants could be pretty awesome after all. And they were so pretty in his apartment. He was really glad that Kaeru had given him so many potted plants.

Kaeru's shoulders shook softly and he shook his head.

「They are his favourites.」

"Oh," Naruto gawked at the masked jounin and blushed slightly when he realised that the adult had knew something like that about Sasuke.

Did he know what was his favourite?

The young blond's face darkened and he looked at his empty plate. It hadn't been his favourite meal but it had been delicious nonetheless. Did it mean that Kaeru didn't know that about him?

The masked jounin coughed softly and Naruto looked up to notice that the man was already ready to go.

Also, the notebook was still on the kitchen table and Naruto peeked at it before he smiled brightly at the adult.

"That would be awesome! If you do, you must show me, dattebayo!"

Kaeru nodded and they left the apartment while Naruto continued babbling happily.

「But I'm still searching for a ramen plant...」

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The Uchiha compound was big. And dense. And full of Uchiha that were always glaring at them.

Naruto almost wanted to hide in Kaeru's shadow but he didn't want to shame his friend so he didn't. That didn't deter him from inching closer and closer to the masked adult as the glares increased. But that didn't seem to disturb the Toad masked shinobi as he continued walking peacefully on the compound of the Uchiha, the police force of Konoha, without a care in the world.

Kaeru was slowly becoming Naruto's hero.

Finally, an Uchiha apprehended them and they had to stop as they had been surrounded by threatening men.

"What are you doing here?" The Uchiha growled and his hand inched closer to his kunai pouch.

Kaeru didn't answer as he had his hands full of the cherry tomato plant and he just bobbed his head. Naruto blinked and scowled at the rude man.

"Isn't it obvious? We're here to visit our friend, 'ttebayo!" He said and the Uchiha ignored him. That angered Naruto and he kicked the adult's shin.

The Uchiha fell on his knees and cussed loudly while the other men's eyes turned to red and Naruto gulped loudly.

"Kaeru-san?" He called with a frail voice.

The masked jounin had vanished from his sights and if that wasn't a clear sign that he was all alone in this shit, Naruto didn't know what it was. The boy sighed heavily and prepared himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, remembering what Kaeru had taught him previously.

' _Uchiha with Sharingan are mostly weak against speed and taijutsu,_ ' he reminded himself calmly.

' _ **And if that doesn't work, I'm just itching to kill them all**_ ,' his darker self added his two cents with a deep laugh. ' _ **They think too highly of themselves, I hate that...**_ '

Naruto did too.

He felt his pulse decrease and quickly kicked the nearest Uchiha before he went to the next. The thing was to always move around and to stick close to the men so they would be afraid of hurting each other. Also, the fact that he was a child would help.

But before he could even touch the second Uchiha, Naruto was stopped right on his tracks by a hand that lifted him from the ground. The boy blinked and glanced at the one who had caught him and inwardly groaned.

"Not youuu..." He muttered.

"Alas, it's me," the Uchiha retorted with a satisfied smirk. "Are you here for Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto nodded with a pout and cried when he was suddenly let free and stumbled on his feet.

"You heard it," the Uchiha with the satisfied smirk announced. "He's just there to see Sasuke-sama."

"What about the Toad?" The man that Naruto had kicked on the shins inquired with a scowl. "He was there too."

"Really?" The smirking Uchiha rubbed pensively his chin and he glanced at the pouting child. "He was probably there to babysit the brat. Don't fret about it."

"But Shisui!" The man insisted.

"Don't worry," Shisui insisted and his smirk vanished. "I need to have a little chat with him so it's fine for me."

Naruto kept still and watched the crowd of Uchiha disperse before he talked.

"What do you want to talk with Kaeru-san?" He asked with a suspicious frown.

"Just a little reminder about Sasuke-kun's well-being," Shisui shrugged and then pushed lightly the blonde. "So, didn't you want to see him?"

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed happily and Kaeru clapped happily by Shisui's other side.

"You," the Uchiha's smile vanished and his face darkened ominously. "How dare you awaken Sasuke's Sharingan... I'll throttle you..."

Kaeru gulped loudly and he began to flail his hands and body while Shisui cackled evilly at him.

"And that's," the Uchiha added with a lighter voice and mirthful eyes, "what Itachi is going to tell you once he gets back from his mission!"

Something along to a whine escaped the masked shinobi's throat and Naruto tilted his head.

"Why would Sasuke's brother be angry if Kaeru-san helped Sasuke on awakening his special power?" He inquired with a puzzled face.

He really couldn't understand why everyone was so angry at the adult and why the masked jounin felt so bad about Sasuke's situation. Come on, he had bought him a tomato plant!

"Well," Shisui rubbed his chin pensively and winked at the boy. "For us, it's the same feeling as a father whose daughter's virginity has been lost. In both cases, we just want to see the culprit burn to death. We didn't specialise in Fire jutsus for nothing, you know?"

Kaeru gave another whine and sobbed silently on his potted plant.

"And Itachi is particularly protective of Sasuke-kun," the Uchiha was now rubbing salt on Kaeru's injury and he was enjoying every moment of it. "I wonder what kind of punishment he'll come up with..."

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Itachi stayed still, his face not showing the turmoil of emotions that were currently ravaging his head and he held his breath, waiting for the judgment. And it finally came.

"No."

Itachi didn't blink and he looked at the blond woman with heavy breast and with a little pig on her lap. She was reclining her head on the couch and didn't even look at him. He didn't really care about that, he was used to being underestimated at first glance and that went well with his job. But that answer didn't do.

He needed a yes.

He opened his mouth to insist and was halted by the woman who had raised a hand.

"Don't even try," she told him without even raising her head. "I don't want to hear an Uchiha begging."

"Then how about hearing a message?" Itachi said evenly.

The woman lazily raised her head and his dark eyes finally met her brown ones. She had a half smirk and cocked her head.

"Very well," she said as she took a sip of sake (one of Itachi's presents). "You have my attention."

"It's from a man who likes to be known under the name Kaeru," the Uchiha explained succinctly and he noticed acutely that the woman had been startled by the name. She knew him. " _He's the first part of repaying your debt_."

The blonde gritted her teeth and the little pig on her lap squealed fearfully while her grip shattered her cup of sake.

"That little scoundrel..." She muttered darkly as she watched the sake run on her fingers.

"Your answer?" Itachi asked with a calm voice.

The woman glared at him but he didn't falter. Even if he knew that he hadn't the power or experience to defeat her, he couldn't back down. Not when his eyes, his very life, were on the verge.

"Very well," she relented between her gritted teeth. "I'll go to Konoha and heal you."

"Should I tell your attendant that you're leaving, Tsunade-hime?" He asked politely and he watched how the blonde blushed angrily at him and avoided the bottle of sake.

"I'll do it myself!" She grumbled before she rudely opened the doors of her hotel room and was met with the very curious face of her assistant. "Shizune!" She roared. "We leave in three minutes. Get ready."

"I've already finished," the young woman answered with a bright smile.

"Damn," Tsunade muttered as she massaged her aching head. "It's like that scoundrel had everything planned..."

Itachi blinked and decided that the dangerous Sannin wasn't anymore angry at him. He walked carefully until he was in front of her and met her eyes.

"When did you met Kaeru-san?" He asked.

The woman scoffed and went back to her couch where she lazily lay.

"I'd like to say that I don't remember when I met him but that would be a lie," she answered while her face darkened. "That scoundrel approached me a day and asked me to play a little with me. And before I even knew it, I owed him a lot..."

"So Kaeru-san is skilled at betting games?" Itachi whispered pensively.

"Skilled?" Tsunade repeated while she widened her eyes with incredulity. "That man is abnormally lucky whenever there is a game of luck! And it's the same for cards. He just always wins!"

"But that means that he is unlucky in other areas, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said as she arrived in the room with their luggage sealed in little scrolls that she wore on her belt.

"Yeah," the blond nodded and laughed loudly as if she reminded something incredibly funny. "That's right! Remember that time when he had to fight a crowd of drunken girls that wanted to see his face?"

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune chided with a small frown. "You were one of those girls and you destroyed the bar."

"Good times, good times," the Sannin nodded and jumped on her feet before she pointed a finger to Itachi's chest. "So tell me, pretty boy, is that scoundrel still in Konoha?"

The Uchiha heir didn't even bat an eyelash at the nickname and nodded sternly.

"Great," Tsunade smirked and she jumped by the window to land perfectly on the ground.

The two other shinobi were quick on her feet and followed her, flanking her from any possible assault. Tsunade the Sannin had a lot of enemies.

"Let's go!" The blonde exclaimed just before she began to run. "That scoundrel is the best drinking partner I've met! Don't stay behind me, pretty boy!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just the beginning!  
> Next chapter: Friends.


	5. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

 

* * *

He thrummed his fingers on the nightstand and sighed heavily. When he had been tasked with the mission of getting lady Tsunade back to Konoha, he hadn't thought that it meant that he had to stop at every village so the lady could indulge herself in betting parlours and alcohol. Uchiha Itachi sighed again and ignored how the woman sitting next to him was trying to force him on a drinking game.

"There you are!" He heard an over enthusiast voice call him and Itachi inwardly winced.

If he had to drink another round of cheap sake, that would be his last straw. And Uchiha Itachi was supposed to be a really patient man. But seriously, that was going to be the third time of the day that they had stopped to drink and he was feeling a bit miffed about it. Also, he had promised Sasuke that he would be back by the next morning.

"Tsunade-hime," he greeted coolly.

"Pretty boy," she retorted as she flickered his nose with a finger.

She could have broken his nose had he not avoided her finger. Tsunade puffed her cheeks and pouted childishly at him before she pushed an almost empty bottle of cheap sake in his chest.

"Come on!" She insisted cheerily. "Let's drink!"

Itachi sighed and accepted the empty cup that she had given him. After those five days of travel, she seemed to have at least realised that he didn't like drinking during a mission. So while he looked with pensive eyes at the empty cup, Tsunade sat loudly on her bum by his side.

"Aaah," she loudly exhaled as she emptied with a deep gulp the bottle. "Nothing beats drinking with a pretty boy!"

Itachi ignored the 'pretty boy' quite easily. It wasn't the first time that a woman had called him like that and he was accustomed to it. Also, Tsunade didn't really mean any wrongdoing with that. She was like that. He glanced at the open window, seeing the rising moon and frowned slightly. Sasuke tended to have fits during his sleep when there was a full moon. He wondered how his little brother was doing under Kaeru's supervision and decided to avoid thinking about that. The masked jounin was a strange man after all, capable of anything and nothing at the same time.

Itachi heard Tsunade sigh and he looked at her before he furrowed his eyebrows, his stress marks increasing as he did so.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked without even glancing at him. She was still sipping at her bottle, even if it was already empty, and looking at the window.

"What do you know about Kaeru?" He asked and was a bit surprised by himself.

The question had left his lips without him even thinking it.

Tsunade made an annoying grumble and she threw her bottle at the window. Itachi didn't blink when he heard the glass shattering and a man squealing like a pig outside the room. He had noticed the spy long ago.

"What do I know about that scoundrel?" Tsunade repeated with a pensive face. She munched over her lips and shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe as much as you. Or maybe more~"

Itachi refrained from rolling his eyes and he thrummed his fingers on the nightstand another time. Some seconds passed and the Uchiha sighed once again, his shoulders sagging as he decided to stop getting antsy for nothing.

"What do you not know about him?" He winced at his weirdly phrased question and raised a brow when he saw the lady smirk.

"That one is good, pretty boy," she congratulate him while she nodded swiftly. She then cupped her chin pensively and bit her lips. "I don't know his birthday. Nor his age. He said something about being younger than me though, that scoundrel..."

Itachi was startled by her last words and perked his head.

"You heard him talk?" His voice was a mere whisper but it carried his curiosity.

"Huh-huh," Tsunade acquiesced and scratched her neck. "He talks a lot whenever we play poker. Distracting as hell..."

 _That_.

That was a good lead.

"What about his mask?" He inquired when he realised that Tsunade wasn't going to talk again.

The Sannin stopped looking at the window and her brown eyes met his, her eyebrows furrowed with perplexity.

"A mask?" She said and Itachi felt shivers on his back. "That scoundrel doesn't wear a mask."

Forget the poker lead, this was a lot better.

"How does he look like?" He asked.

Tsunade licked her lips and opened her mouth. Itachi scooted closer.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The Uchiha compound was truly fascinating. Naruto couldn't keep his eyes to himself and ended almost stomping on his own feet as the annoying Uchiha leaded through the maze. Kaeru-san didn't seem that perturbed by all those Uchiha looking at them with hard eyes and from time to time, the jounin turned to look at him. Once, he even stopped walking and ruffled his hair through his froggie beanie. Naruto smiled brightly after that and they kept walking with a skip in their steps.

The annoying Uchiha glanced at them with a mocking smirk and Naruto wanted to wipe it off his face. But Kaeru-san stretched his hand in front of him to stop him so the child reluctantly settled on glaring daggers at the Uchiha.

Finally they ended in front of the teme's house and Naruto observed around him. It was probably the biggest house in the whole compound and he pouted. Well, that explained why Sasuke was such a teme. But still, Naruto didn't like him.

He felt a hand push him softly on his back and turned his head to look at the one who did it. It was Kaeru-san and Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. The jounin just pointed the teme's house with a finger and tilted his head in his habitual hidden smile. Naruto smiled at him and ran in the house, leaving the two adults alone.

Once the kid left, the masked jounin tensed and swiftly turned around so he wasn't turning his back on Shisui. The Uchiha hadn't moved from his spot and was sucking on his teeth silently, his dark eyes observing him. Kaeru slowly raised a hand to his neck and suddenly stopped. His hand retroceded and he gulped discreetly. Feeling a blade on one's neck could do that to anyone.

"Fugaku-sama," Shisui dropped on one knee and bowed his head reverently.

"Stand, Shisui," the Uchiha head said sternly and he pressed lightly his sword against the fragile skin.

Even if the masked shinobi wore a dark scarf, the sword edge pierced through it and Fugaku saw the blood seep through the dark clothes and run freely on his sword.

"I hadn't expected the Toad to be that docile," he commented without moving his weapon.

The masked jounin didn't move at all. Shisui jumped to his feet and cocked his head, his dark eyes morphing into his bloody red Sharingan.

"Please, be careful, Fugaku-sama," he said softly as he observed carefully their hostage.

"Of course," the other Uchiha nodded sternly and he narrowed his eyes threateningly, his Sharingan wheel turning ominously. "He's the one who almost beheaded the War Hawk..."

The two Uchiha suddenly tensed and Fugaku threw himself at the masked jounin. However the Toad wasn't there and the Uchiha head skidded on the paved ground until he stopped right next to Shisui. The latter' eyes were already twirling, looking everywhere to find the masked jounin even if he was hidden under a jutsu.

"Did he say why he was here?" Fugaku asked as he sheathed his sword and dusted his kimono.

Shisui nodded sternly and blinked, his sharigan vanishing while his eyes took their normal black colour.

"He said something about Sasuke," he answered tersely.

Fugaku grunted faintly, frowning harshly as he glanced at his younger son's bedroom window. He scrunched his face and stress marks similar to his oldest son's ones appeared below his eyes. "Go tell Mikoto," he ordered as he jumped on the rooftop. "I'll look for that Toad."

They vanished in swirls of leaves and a relieved sigh followed that action. A form suddenly appeared from his hiding spot, he had used a kawarimi to hide in a tree and couldn't really believe his luck.

Did Shisui really not see him? Or was the young Uchiha scheming something?

* * *

囧

* * *

Naruto looked around him with amazed eyes, the teme's house was really big and they even had a lot of rooms there. The blond was almost lost until he caught a whiff of the teme's vibe. Kaeru-san had taught him some time ago how to track down people and since then Naruto always tried to use those abilities when he needed to find someone.

It seems that he had a really good nose. But Kaeru had told him that he would never rival the Inuzuka in that aspect. Not that Naruto wanted, Kiba was a mutt and Naruto wanted to be a kick-ass ninja. Not a scruffy looking mutt.

When he found Sasuke's room, Naruto was already out of breath and patience. So he kicked the door open and growled with raw energy when he entered the room. Naruto noticed the familiar dark haired boy sitting in his bed and he quickly stalked there before he put loudly down the plant pot on the mattress.

Sasuke blinked, his eyes travelling from the plant with ruffled leaves to the unblinking sky blue eyes.

"What's that?" He asked after some time.

Naruto snorted and folded his arms on his chest.

"Are you blind," he retorted sarcastically. "It's a plant."

"Dobe," Sasuke rolled his eyes and frowned. "Why is there a plant in my bed."

"Because it's a present," the blond deadpanned.

"Why?" The other boy insisted.

Naruto sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. He really couldn't understand how the teme could be so dense.

"Because Kaeru-san is apologising for something that I'm pretty sure he didn't do!" He shouted with annoyance.

Sasuke froze at his words and his dark eyes widened in horror. Naruto cocked his head in curiosity when he saw those black pupils begin to change colour and take a bloody red tinge. The Uchiha's head then hung low and Naruto couldn't see his eyes anymore.

"Hey," Sasuke suddenly said with a faint voice. It was so soft that Naruto had to strain his ears to hear it. "Do you know what happened?"

"You had a little chat with him," the blonde shrugged as he remembered Kaeru's vague explanation and he scratched his neck. "Is it really that important? You now have that Sharingan, no? You should be happy. And not be a chicken who hides in his room!"

Sasuke tensed and he sprung from his bed, his hands tightened into fists on his sides while he glared at the blonde. His single tomoe shocked Naruto a bit but the blonde quickly hid it. He had already seen Itachi's Sharingan and nothing was more scarier than that. (Well, maybe an angry Kaeru could be scarier... He still had to see that though)

"What did you say?" Sasuke growled threateningly but Naruto didn't really seem to be impressed.

"You're a chicken!" Naruto retorted immediately. He was slowly getting angry at the Uchiha.

Sasuke had been the one who had insisted on following them. He had been the one who left the room when Naruto had told him not to. And Sasuke had been the one who had talked with Kaeru-san when Naruto couldn't. When he had never heard Kaeru-san's voice. When a mere pat on his head was all he wanted and yet rarely obtained. While Sasuke got his amazing house in a big compound, an amazing family and everything that Naruto had never had. And he even had now Kaeru-san fussing over him, giving him presents and caring way more about him than for the blond. Naruto didn't really understand what kind of emotion he was feeling right now towards the Uchiha but he kind of knew that it wasn't a good one.

After all, his darker voice was rearing its ugly head.

' _ **Killing him would simplify things so much...'**_

 _'No_ ,' Naruto simply said. He wasn't going to follow that voice's proposal.

Kaeru-san would be disappointed on him if he did.

"Who is the chicken!" Sasuke shouted loudly and he was suddenly on Naruto, his nails digging on his flesh and his feet kicking him.

Naruto retorted and fought tooth and nail against the Uchiha while the other did the same. They spouted insults at each other and tried to make the other suffer.

 _ **'Kill! Kill! Kill!**_ ' The voice was now changing loudly in his ears and Naruto snarled as he opened his mouth wide and his teeth grew into fangs. He met the teme's eyes and felt himself almost faint before he regained his mind. ' ** _Kill! KILL! KILL!'_**

"NARUTO! SASUKE!"

Naruto didn't recognise that voice but he did recognise those hands that were suddenly around his shoulders, pushing him away from Sasuke. The blonde panted loudly and he reclined his head against a chest. He could feel a strong heartbeat against his cheek and he closed his eyes. The voice in his head diminished until it was a mere whisper at the back of his mind and Naruto let the heartbeat lull him to sleep.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Uchiha Shisui as he pushed Sasuke in his bed and quickly made sure that he wasn't heavily injured.

The young Uchiha had a lot of scratches all over his face and neck but that was it. He also had a lip busted and his Sharingan eyes were glowing at full power. He had really gone for the kill and that perplexed Shisui.

Did Sasuke hate the jinchūriki that much? If Sasuke couldn't control himself by the next time, the jounin seriously wondered what would happen. The toad masked jounin was particularly protective of the jinchūriki after all.

Once Sasuke was in his bed, Shisui glanced at the masked jounin and almost choked on his spit. The other man wasn't moving, his arms around the jinchūriki's small frame and all in all, it seemed like a normal picture. Except that it wasn't.

Shisui was famous for his Sharingan and his ability to put anyone under a genjutsu without them even realising when it began. And as such, he had particularly piercing eyes that never missed anything. He coughed faintly and his Sharingan twirled while he observed the simply impossible but yet massively huge chakra flare all around the masked jounin.

"What the hell?" Shisui muttered and he tensed when he noticed that the Toad was moving.

Kaeru was already up and he coolly walked to Sasuke's bed, the dark haired kid whining weakling in pure terror, before the jounin set down the jinchūriki. Naruto made a small sound and immediately curled around Sasuke's shivering frame. The Uchiha stopped whining and blinked at the unconscious blonde before he looked wearily at the masked adult.

"W-what?" He stuttered before he took a deep breath and straightened his back. He tightened his fingers around Naruto's hand and tried to keep a straight face against the masked jounin that seemed to scare him so much.

Shisui didn't move from his spot, his eyes assessing every move from the Toad. With the chakra that the latter had briefly deployed, he was pretty sure that the whole Uchiha compound would be soon there. All he had to do was stall the things. He forced his body to relax and put an amiable smile on his lips. From what he could see from the corner of his eyes, Sasuke was trying to keep a poker face but failing at it. Nonetheless, it was admirable.

Holding his own against the Toad masked jounin wasn't something to belittle.

A sudden shift had his whole attention and Shisui observed without even blinking the other jounin move his hand to his throat. From what he could remember, the Toad had a seal tattooed on his neck. He tensed and prepared himself to jump between the two kids and the jounin. He wouldn't let the other hurt innocent children. Even if one of them was a jinchūriki.

But the masked jounin's hand didn't stop at his neck. It continued raising until it went under his mask and finally descended to his neck, blood pearling at the tip of his thumb. Shisui didn't stop him, he knew that the seal needed blood and he inwardly prayed that it wasn't an explosive seal. That would hurt like hell. Finally, the bloodied thumb was pressed against the seal and the two Uchiha took a deep breath when they acutely saw how the seal stopped glowing.

That was a good and bad signal at the same time. It meant that whatever the seal had been used for had stopped. It could be deathly if they weren't attentive enough.

And then, the masked shinobi talked.

"Yo!"

Sasuke and Shisui blinked.

"Eh?" The two Uchiha exclaimed.

"Nice to properly meet you," the masked man added with that strange perky voice that wasn't at all like the one that had scared shitless Sasuke the previous week. "I'm Kaeru!"

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"How does he look?" Tsunade pondered over her choice of words and settled on a shrug. "How should I put it? He's really good..."

Itachi raised an intrigued eyebrow and completed in his mind by good looking. Yet, from the frown in the lady's face, he wasn't really sure if that was it.

"He's so good at ninjutsu that sometimes it can make one overlook his genjutsu," Tsunade added pensively as they both jumped over a pond. Shizune was already way ahead them as she didn't really want to talk about the Toad masked jounin.

Itachi frowned and he landed effortlessly on a branch before he jumped gracelessly. Tsunade was already up in the air by the time he landed in another branch. They both weren't strained by their energetic pace and began to accelerate it subconsciously.

"So he's good at genjutsu too?" The Uchiha resumed and he almost faltered in his steps when he heard the woman's boisterous laugh.

"That scoundrel? Good at genjutsu?" She wiped a tear from her eyes and giggled a little bit more before she launched and landed in a clearing.

Shizune was already settling their camp and Itachi observed their surroundings. There weren't that far from Konoha and if they continued walking like that, they would be home by the next morning. That is, if Tsunade didn't stop to drink her sake.

"Then is he any good at genjutsu?" Itachi insisted as he landed next to Tsunade.

The lady was already drinking a cup of sake and she looked at him with mirthful eyes.

"Not at all!" She finally answered once she gulped her sake. "That scoundrel can't break or notice a genjutsu to save his life!"

"Then," the sole man of their little expedition frowned and he sat silently. "What are his true abilities at genjutsu?"

"Genjutsu in itself is pretty impossible for him," Tsunade stated calmly and her eyes hardened. "But if you add fuijutsu then that changes everything. Guess that he stopped painting his face every morning and settled on a mask."

"Paint his face?" Itachi made a brief puzzled face before he put his poker face back in place.

But it was too late as Tsunade was already grinning at him.

"Ooooh?" She cooed happily and she ignored Shizune's sigh. "You didn't know, right? That scoundrel is really good at fuijutsu and during the whole time that we passed together, he always had a seal on his face that made it unrecognisable. But I guess that it takes too much energy."

Itachi frowned and leaned his chin on his clasped hands.

If he did use before a seal to hide his features, why did he resort on using a mask now? Why would he want to conserve his energy when he hadn't while he traveled with a Sannin? Was there something in Konoha that he needed his whole energy to do?

It was a faint hunch but Itachi suddenly froze. What was in Konoha that wasn't anywhere else?

With who was the masked jounin close?

Itachi felt like he had been submerged in ice cold water and he suddenly jumped to his feet.

"What is it, pretty boy?" Tsunade asked him with an intrigued look.

"We must hurry," the Uchiha tersely explained. "It could be nothing but I'd prefer if we arrived in Konoha today."

It took a mere glance between the two women before they were back on their feet. This time, there wasn't any chitchat and they focused all they had in advancing faster to their village.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The ride to the land of Fire hadn't been as easy as he had expected. The Fourth Kazekage glanced at his inexpressive son and he sighed internally. Since they had had their 'heart to heart' chat, Gaara had acted strangely. Sometimes, he left Suna and vanished in the desert to come back days after with an almost haggard look. Yet, since then, nobody had been killed by one of his famous fit and the Kazekage was seriously intrigued in what had happened to his son.

Was that masked jounin that good with taming chakra beasts?

He was truly intrigued. And as such, he had ended asking the Third Hokage if he could visit him. The Hokage had accepted but he was pretty sure that the old man had done so because he was intrigued.

That was okay for the Fourth Kazekage. It meant that he could predict the Hokage's actions.

They were once again attacked by thieves and by then they were already accustomed to it. The Fourth didn't move and he observed his guards (two shinobis. He couldn't leave Suna unprotected during his leave) scoot away so they could deal easily with the fleeing thieves if they were to escape from Gaara. The redhead wasn't smiling like he tended to whenever there was a bloodshed involved. He merely tilted his head, his green eyes glancing over the thieves as if they were mere ants and his fingers twitched. The Fourth smiled approvingly when he saw the sand crush the men without leaving one alive.

Gaara had truly changed. Before, he'd have played with them before killing them in the bloodiest way possible. He secretly took his Golden Dust out of his son's sand and they proceeded walking. Leaving behind them rest of crushed human bones.

They finally arrived at Konoha's gates and everyone sighed in relief. Traveling could be really tiring, even more when one had to travel with a former psychotic jinchūriki. Gaara just blinked as he took in the sights of the Hidden Village and when the doors opened to reveal the Hokage, the jinchūriki stomped impatiently but didn't say anything.

"Hokage," the Fourth greeted calmly.

"Kazekage," Sarutobi said with a curt bow before he asked him to follow him to his tower.

The Fourth Kazekage glanced at his son and then at his guards. Without a sound, he nodded calmly and watched his son leave with a swirl of sand.

"I guess that was the son who wanted to see Kaeru so much," the Hokage muttered once the Kazekage walked next to him.

The Fourth hummed in a vague answer and he heard Sarutobi laugh faintly.

"He seems as smitten with Kaeru as is Naruto," the latter commented lightly. "If we don't pay attention, we could regret it..."

"Would we really?" The Kazekage asked sternly as his eyes observed the lively village and he inwardly compared it with Suna.

The Hidden Village of the Leaves was as lively as the Toad masked jounin. When the latter had irrupted so suddenly in his office and kidnapped one of his accessor (whom he found out soon after was a spy from the Country of Water), the Fourth had been first surprised. And then almost elated. That man had transformed his son. Gaara was now more human like, more like the weapon that Suna had always needed. More like the son that he certainly didn't deserve.

"I guess we would kind of deserve that," the Hokage chuckled almost darkly and the Fourth Kazekage stopped dwelling on those dark thoughts to make a small smirk.

They definitely would.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The air wasn't as humid as back home. It made using his sand more difficult. Also, the voice wasn't as loud as before. He tilted his head and closed his eyes, sending all of his sand around him. The particles danced in the humid air and he shuddered when he felt all of those foreign chakra around him. He continued spreading his sand, looking for that familiar chakra and then, finally, found it.

Gaara opened his eyes and made sure that all of his sand was back in his heavy gourd. He then jumped from the lamppost and landed on the ground, surprising a group of children of his age. He saw a boy slightly overweighted, one with dark hair tied into a pineapple shaped ponytail and a blonde haired girl. The girl was looking a bit scared so he decided to just ignore her, his eyes settled then on a small tinge of pink. He cocked his head. He hadn't noticed the fourth child.

It was a girl. She was reading some kind of scroll under the shade of a big tree and Gaara walked until he was in front of the pink haired girl. He stood there in silence, his head making a shadow that was obstructing the girl's reading. She furrowed her eyebrows and sighed heavily by her nose before she rolled expertly the scroll and glanced up. Green eyes met their counterpart and the pink haired girl gaped a bit. Her eyes traveled from his eyes to his tattoo and then to his clothes before they settled back to his eyes.

"Oh," she simply said in lieu of running away while screaming bloody murder. "Did you use blood to make your tattoo?"

Gaara didn't blink and merely looked at the girl. She seemed to get the gist of it because she suddenly got up and dusted quietly her clothes. They were formal shinobi garb, not that Gaara cared that much about it.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," she presented herself and then advanced her hand.

Gaara remembered his first meeting with Kaeru and nodded swiftly his head, surprising the children present. They hadn't expected him to move so quickly. He took the girl's hand, noticing how hot and rough it felt. She must have practiced a lot with them. He gave it a light squeeze, remembering how Kaeru had taught him that being too forceful could be bad, and dropped it.

"Gaara," he said.

"Good," Haruno Sakura said and she swiftly sat, leaning her back against the tree trunk.

Gaara nodded another time and left without a word, leaving the other kids gobsmacked at their interaction.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," he faintly heard the blonde haired girl ask. "What was that?"

"Small case of autism," Haruno Sakura answered absentmindedly as she was already submerged in her reading. "Being straight to the point is the best way to connect. He's my friend now."

Gaara decided that he liked being in Konoha. Now if he found Kaeru...

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Kaeru leaned his back against the open window. He could feel the piercing glares of almost every Uchiha in the compound that were almost making holes on his neck but he decided to ignore that.

After all, he was already against two angry Uchiha. And he really didn't know what had triggered such a reaction.

"So you can talk," Uchiha Shisui drawled coldly.

He had his arms folded on his chest and was glaring at the masked man. And being glared at with Sharingan eyes was something scary. But the Toad didn't seem that perturbed by it and Shisui tsk-ed. That could mean that it wasn't his first time going against an Uchiha.

Kaeru shrugged and he sat on the window railing. He could already pinpoint where the Uchiha had posted themselves outside and placed that information in a corner of his kind. He hadn't been able to escape from the ANBU in his youth for nothing.

"And why didn't you talk until now?" Shisui insisted. His red eyes were almost scary in their intensity but that didn't really concern Kaeru.

He suddenly froze and the two Uchiha in the bedroom tensed. The dark haired exchanged a glance and Sasuke pressed Naruto's unconscious body against the wall while he took a kunai from under his pillow. The younger Uchiha took a defensive kata, the one that Itachi had drilled in his body day after day and he exhaled quietly. His body was relaxed and he was ready for whatever the masked jounin was about to do.

Sasuke hadn't at all expected to see the Toad dive to the floor and roll away from the window while what seemed to be spears made of a moving matter suddenly came from the window.

"Talk about bad timing," Kaeru muttered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and then widened them when he saw a small body float until the feet were on the window railing. The person was even smaller than Naruto (and that was something as the blonde was the smaller in their age group) and had bright red hair along with green eyes without pupils. Sasuke blinked in surprise and he observed without moving, his heartbeat regular, the stranger step quietly in the bedroom. Thick open-tooed sandals touched the floor and dust swirled around the redhead. Suddenly, the dust (or what seemed to be dust) condensed all around the stranger and formed spears.

" _ **Gaara, stop**_!" Kaeru suddenly ordered.

His voice was back to that deep tone. Sasuke shivered in horror and he backed away from the adult until his back touched Naruto's sleeping body. He could feel the abnormal heat seep through that horrendous orange tracksuit and the young Uchiha gulped loudly. Now wasn't the time to panick.

The Toad was finally revealing his true colours.

The newcomer, probably called Gaara, didn't follow the masked jounin's order and the spears attacked. It was then that Sasuke's door exploded. The boy refrained from rolling his eyes. Yes, they were under attack from an unknown threat. And okay, Kaeru was probably the biggest threat right now.

But still, that didn't mean that they had to destroy his bedroom.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

They got to Konoha just in time. Itachi didn't even care if Tsunade would take the opportunity to slip away, he just shunshined to his house and ran to Sasuke's side. It seemed that he had been right on his foreboding because Kaeru was indeed there. And there was indeed a threat to Sasuke's wellbeing.

Except that it wasn't Kaeru who was threatening his baby brother. In fact, the Toad was actually protecting everyone in the room with what seemed to be whirlwinds.

 _'So he's a wind user_ ,' Itachi briefly thought before he realised that he was already next to Kaeru.

His Sharingan was turning, his tomoes swirling in a hypnotic pace yet the redhead that they were going against didn't seem affected at all.

 _" **Gaara** ,"_ Kaeru suddenly said and Itachi blinked.

He had thought until then that the masked shinobi couldn't talk. Yet here he was, talking with a deep and strange voice. How surprising.

"Kaeru," the redhead retorted with a deadpan voice. "I followed your advice."

The Toad masked jounin sighed and Itachi observed him scratch his neck. The man didn't seem that perturbed by the stranger's kill intent. So that meant that they knew each other pretty well. Itachi wondered since when. Probably years. After all, they didn't know from where Kaeru had come from. And he had disappeared during two weeks previously.

" _ **I can see**_ ," the Frog commented lightly. " ** _But I didn't expect it to be so soon_.** "

The redhead seemed to frown. But that wasn't easy to see as he didn't really have eyebrows. He tilted his head, his eyes slightly fogged as he observed pensively the bedroom.

"Hn," Gaara nodded sternly. "Is it what you called intruding?"

Kaeru sighed another time and Itachi relaxed wholly. The tense vibe in the bedroom had finally receded and the Uchiha turned his head to look at his younger brother. Sasuke was still in the bed, protecting a sleeping Uzumaki Naruto and Itachi's lips quirked slightly in approval.

His foolish little brother was growing up.

Then, he met Shisui's eyes. His bestfriend wasn't using his Sharingan and that further relaxed Itachi. In their tandem, it was always Shisui who noticed the genjutsu and Itachi who acted. Not that they couldn't do the reverse but they liked it better that way.

"Yes, it is," Kaeru answered and this time his voice was lighter. Happier too. And it sounded strangely familiar. It still had that strange echo though. (Itachi put that information in a corner of his mind and promised himself to look at him after all of this had ended) "Also, what did I say about coming into a house unannounced?"

Gaara seemed perplexed and his pale green eyes suddenly lightened while he pursed his lips. He then swiftly moved a hand to touch his gourd on his back and everyone in the room (except the redhead and Kaeru) tensed as he did so. Then Gaara took off his gourd and put it on the floor. It thumped with a deep sound and Itachi slightly raised an impressed eyebrow. That redhead was stronger than he let it show.

Gaara quietly sat on his heels and bowed briefly his head to the Uchiha. "Pardon my intrusion," he said emotionlessly. "I'm coming in."

With those words said, he stood up and took off his sandals that he threw at the window. The shoes flew effortlessly and landed with a loud splat on a poor Uchiha who gave a small yelp when he was suddenly swarmed by an aggressive and moving sand.

"Well?" Kaeru cocked his head and looked insistingly at Sasuke.

The boy gulped loudly and glanced at the potted plant (that even with all of those events was still on his bed) and then at the barefooted redhead. Was the Toad serious? Was he seriously asking him to do that? Invite a perfect stranger in his sacred room?

"Sasuke?"

Itachi's questioning voice was all it took to convince the youngest Uchiha.

"Please come in," he politely invited the stranger in even if the boy was already in his room.

Hell, he had barged in by destroying his window and room!

Gaara nodded with his habitual inexpressive face and sat once again on his heels, his back propped against his gourd. A long and heavy silence followed until...

"Does that make us friends?" The redhead asked with a stern voice.

Sasuke blinked and looked for help at his brother. Itachi merely smiled at him and the younger Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"I..." Sasuke said between his gritted teeth before he sighed heavily. "I guess so."

"Great," Gaara nodded his head and jumped to his feet. He swiftly put his gourd on his back and turned around so he could look at Kaeru. "I still want to kill you."

Kaeru gave him a thumbs-up and the redhead acquiesced. He then jumped by the window and the Toad waved him goodby until they couldn't see the kid anymore.

"What. The. Hell. Just. Happened," Shisui calmly resumed what everyone thought while he fought against a hysteric laugh that was already creeping in his throat.

"Sasuke made his second friend," Itachi answered politely before he smiled softly at his brother. "Congratulations, Sasuke."

"Hn," the youngest Uchiha ducked his head and scratched his cheek to hide his blush. But that quickly was forgotten when he realised something.

Kaeru wasn't in his bedroom anymore. As wasn't Naruto. And he hadn't seen them leave.

Sasuke frowned in annoyance and gritted his teeth. He swore to himself that the next time he'd see them and as he did, the boy didn't realise that he had used his Sharingan.

Meanwhile Itachi was nearing an apoplexy as he noticed those characteristic red eyes on his baby brother's face. Something snapped and Shisui laughed weakly. Now was really the moment to leave...

" ** _Shisui_**..." An ominous voice growled and the Uchiha squeaked like a mouse before he ran away like he had the devil on his tail.

And for everyone who saw Itachi that day, they could concord with Shisui's belief. It truly was the devil.

Since that day, Kaeru made himself scarce in Konoha and never again put a foot in the Uchiha compound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, by the next chapter, we'll find out a bit more about Kaeru's meeting with Tsunade. Without forgetting Chibi!Naruto and Chibi!Gaara's first meeting.
> 
> Next chapter: True Brothers.


	6. Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back. And with a chapter longer than the previous ones. Well, I guess that you won't complain, right?
> 
> And that's it for today author's note.

Sarutobi Hiruzen leaned back on his uncomfortable chair and he sighed heavily while his really important guest tilted his lips slightly upwards. The Kazekage was famed for his valedictorian spirit and Sarutobi could understand it. The Suna ninja had to survive the harsh condition of living in a desert, without forgetting the fact that they weren't really sought for by the daimyo.

Yet, the Fourth Kazekage had done whatever he could do to make his village continue living and also prospere. Even accept help from a total stranger who could have perfectly plotted on his village demise. Except that he hadn't and now here he was. Ready to talk with the Third Hokage.

Sarutobi took a small puff of smoke from his kiseru and he exhaled it softly, blowing it towards the window so his guest wouldn't be perturbed by it.

"Should I suppose that we aren't being spied here?" The Fourth swiftly cut through the useless niceties and went to what really mattered now.

He hadn't traveled that far for nothing.

"We aren't," Hiruzen answered as he took another puff of smoke.

It was one of Jiraya's last presents and the Hokage quite liked it. The Fourth raised a brow, his dark eyes narrowing briefly in suspicion before he sighed heavily. His shoulders sagged imperceptibly and his fingers twitched a bit. The golden dust that permeated his clothes shuddered a bit. Yet he didn't attack.

Hiruzen exhaled, forming rings of grey smoke and he quirked his lips a bit.

The Kazekage hadn't come here with ideas of war.

Kaeru had been right. Again. (That made the Hokage sigh a bit. The brat would rub it over his face for months...)

Hiruzen shook his head to get away from those horrible thoughts (Kaeru could make a really annoying smug face. It was way more irritating than Kakashi's and that was something as they both had masks.)

"Very well," the Hokage leaned his elbows on his desk and furrowed his eyebrows a bit, observing acutely how the Kazekage didn't even falter under his piercing gaze. "How can I help you, Fourth?"

The Kazekage's hands twitched discreetly and Hiruzen raised an interested eyebrow.

"That shinobi," the Fourth drawled cautiously. "The Toad masked shinobi, his name was Kaeru, right?"

Sarutobi nodded silently. His eyes went briefly to the window where Kaeru always came trough and he swiftly remembered that said shinobi wouldn't come today as he still had to apologise to the young Uchiha Sasuke. The Hokage smiled fondly at the memory of the blond shinobi smiling bashfully at him and he was almost startled when he heard the other man talk.

"On his first day in Suna, he sequestered one of my councillors," the Kazekage said. His eyebrows were furrowed and his forehead was creased with light wrinkles.

His post as the Kazekage was making him grow older by days. Hiruzen could relate with that. He clicked his tongue and made a small grimace.

"Don't tell me," he groaned as he waved his hand and scrunched his nose. "He played with him and then killed him? Or you never found the body... He did that a lot on his first year here..."

The Kazekage widened his eyes and gaped a bit before he swiftly recomposed his face. Once it was as expressionless as ever, he smirked a bit and tilted his head.

"So the Toad did the same here," he whispered darkly.

Hiruzen pursed his lips and leaned his chin over his hands.

"He calls it a purge," the Hokage said sternly. "I never asked him to do it and yet he keeps disappearing and making people vanish out of nowhere. And once we investigate a bit over those victims, we always find something nasty. I don't know how to condone that."

The Kazekage pursed his lips and scowled a bit. "You're being too honest, Hokage," he corrected with a frown. "Such things shouldn't be said to another Kage."

Hiruzen scoffed and he put his kiseru on his desk. Then, his both hands on the desk too, he leaned a bit until his face was near the Kazekage's and the Hokage narrowed his eyes.

"It'd be in any other given day and situation," Sarutobi stated calmly. He pursed his lips and glanced briefly at his kiseru before setting his eyes back on his guest. The Kazekage's fingers were twitching again. "Isn't that right, Fourth?"

The redhead narrowed his eyes and his nostrils flared briefly before he tipped his head and gritted his teeth.

"This isn't a plea," he growled in a low voice through his gritted teeth. "Nor a cry for help."

The Hokage leaned back on his chair and he brought back his kiseru to his lips to hide his contented smirk.

"I know," he commented. "This is just a strategy... Get your bigger enemy as your ally to attack the incoming threat, isn't that right?"

The Fourth's lips quivered briefly before they settled into a smirk. His eyes shone with an ominous gleam and he nodded curtly.

"Indeed," he agreed quietly. His black eyes met Hiruzen's scheming ones and the two Kage's smirk widened. "Kiri," the Fourth added after a little while during which they both stayed quiet.

"One of their nukenin?" the Hokage glanced another time at the window.

He could remember Kaeru saying that some of Kiri's nukenin were needed to his master plan. Sarutobi was beginning to regret ordering the masked jounin to go apologise that day. Kaeru's presence here would have helped a lot in diffusing the tension between the two Kage. But then, the Toad had always been an expert in changing the vibe in any given situation.

The Kazekage frowned and shook his head. "No," he let out in a sigh. "One of their shinobi, a jounin I think. It was the Kaeru fellow who apprehended him. I don't know since when he was hiding under the disguise of one of my trusted councillors."

Hiruzen gasped softly and he rubbed in wonder his beard.

"So Kaeru stopped killing the traitors?" he muttered in amazement.

The Kazekage rolled his eyes and pondered over how much of an annoyance the Toad masked shinobi was in Konoha. From what he had seen in Suna, the jounin didn't really care about rankings and had treated his son with more respect than with himself.

And now the Hokage was complaining about the Toad's mischiefs like an annoyed father.

It was strange.

But then, the Hidden Village of Konoha had always been strange.

The Fourth Kazekage squared his shoulders and sighed softly through his parted lips.

Suna could deal with strange for a little while.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The weather was heavy in Konoha. The air was humid and seemed to stick his clothes to his cold skin, it was actually annoying and he frowned harshly as he jumped over a rooftop. In front of him, his prey continued fleeing, a small body dangling limply in its arms.

The predator smirked, his lips quirking in a feral like smile while he followed his prey to the outskirt of the Hidden Village. However, the prey seemed to have noticed that it was stalked for it suddenly jumped, the small body in its arms dangling without resisting against the sudden move. The predator merely smirked bigger and his sand rumbled loudly.

He wanted to attack, to rip off those limbs that always escaped from his sand, to make it bleed red over the coloured roofs of this foreign village. He wanted so much to do all of that and much more but he didn't.

 ** _'Do it, do it, do it!'_**  the Monster roared.

The predator ignored it. He had grown accustomed to it now. His green eyes darkened considerably as they continued jumping on the roofs, the prey escaping graciously his attacks while he procured on stalking it, never letting it escape from his eyes.

Suddenly, the prey stopped jumping and swiftly barged into a building through an open window. The predator did the same, taking off his shoes and throwing them behind them. He heard them hit some bystander on the head but didn't care about that. He had left some of his sand on them so he would retrieve them later.

His bare feet touched softly the rug that covered the floor and he looked around, taking in the sight of those walls covered in pictures and plants. Then, he noticed that his prey wasn't there anymore and he followed the faint sounds that he could hear. He arrived in front of an open door and his lips quirked a bit when he finally saw his prey's back. The latter was hunched over a small bed, its two gloved hands ruffling softly short blonde tresses.

The predator gathered his sand and felt his gourd shake a bit. He kept his bloodlust under a tight leash and took a deep breath.

"Gaara," the prey suddenly said without even turning his head.

The child blinked, his green eyes widening in slight surprise. He had been a perfect ninja, nobody should have been able to hear him or sense him. And yet, that masked man had been able too. His gourd rattled while he shuddered with excitation and a demented smile stretched his lips.

"Finally," the redhead whispered while his bloodlust began to seep through his controlled facade. "I can finally kill you..."

The masked jounin didn't comment on his statement and turned until he was facing the shivering child. His porcelain mask shone almost eerily in the shadowed bedroom and Gaara giggled faintly. He cocked his head and his sand rumbled while it formed a small cocoon around him.

"Not here," the adult chided as he raised a reprobating finger at the boy. "You'd destroy his house and it would cause a lot of problems to the civilians."

Gaara's eyes narrowed a bit and his sand settled down while he glanced at the sleeping kid on the bed and then at the masked jounin.

"If we change our location, you'll let me kill you?" he inquired as he frowned in suspicion.

The masked man shrugged and had the gal to actually ruffle the redhead's hair.

"I won't stop from trying," he drawled before he swatted effortlessly another spear made of sand from stabbing his chest.

"Let's go to one of your training ground," Gaara scrunched his nose at the thought that he had to fetch his shoes again. For the second time of the day. And then he scowled when he realised that before he had met the masked Toad, he wouldn't even have cared about that. Or even done that.

He swiftly turned around and pointed a menacing finger at the adult shinobi. The latter was making sure that the sleeper was comfortably put in his bed and had an ungloved hand on his neck. His seal began glowing once again and Gaara glared. He hated when the Toad used that seal. He was too silent and dangerous like that.

Also, his voice was diverting. And he wanted to hear him laugh and cry. Ad scream while he ripped his legs. He wanted to hear him. That's all.

' _ **Make him bleed! Kill him! Rip his head off! Shower in his blood!**_ ' the Monster roared again.

' _Later_ ,' Gaara promised.

"I'll kill you," he added and was rewarded by a smug pat on his head.

「Bring it on.」the masked jounin traced over his forehead, just next to his tattoo.

Gaara smiled.

* * *

****(・・?)** **

* * *

He leaned his back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes. A small breeze ruffled lightly his black hair and he sighed softly. He could hear the crows cawing somewhere nearby and briefly thought of his future. His mission had been put on hold and he had been strictly ordered to make things stay put in the family.

Uchiha Shisui stretched his limbs and sighed another time while he appreciated the warm rays of sun and the small breeze.

It was at times like these that he really wondered why he had ended as a shinobi when there were jobs like florist out there. But then, that would be risible.

Shisui of the Body Flicker, florist? It sounded like a bad joke.

Small flashes of all the faces of the deceased briefly passed through his mind and he took a deep breath. He stayed like that, his lungs full of air until they burned and he let out his breath. His eyebrows furrowed when he heard another crow caw loudly and the sun disappeared.

He creaked open an eye and scowled a bit. Clouds had appeared on the previously blue and cloudless sky and that annoyed him. It meant that he couldn't stay outside.

Shisui sighed wearily and stretched his arms until his joints popped loudly. He massaged his neck and glanced at the cawing crows. The birds were on the trees, their beady black eyes looking intensively at him. He cocked his head, an eyebrow raised and a crow flapped his wings loudly.

Just after that, an explosion resounded loudly and all the crows flew away while cawing with indignation.

Shisui snorted softly and he glanced at the running shinobi that had caused the explosion. It didn't surprise him at all that it was the toad masked jounin. The man had just entered the training ground four and was jumping almost everywhere with body clones. He was being attacked too. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes and they swiftly took the familiar red of the Sharingan. He observed the child with red hair attacking the Toad and forcing the latter to always stay on the defensive before he pursed his lips. His pupils swirled and took the form of the Mangekyo Sharingan so he could assess acutely what was wrong with the redhead's chakra.

What he did find shocked him.

What was doing another jinchūriki in Konoha?

Shisui slowly stretched his hand on his back until he touched the hilt of his tantō. But a sudden thought stopped him.

Did he really know the true power of the Toad? From what he had seen in Sasuke's room earlier, Kaeru was hiding some crazy chakra.

Shisui settled his hands on his lap and stayed crouched on the tree branch, his eyes assessing everything that occurred down there on the training ground.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When he opened his eyes, the first thing that Naruto noticed was that he was alone.

His chest constricted at that fact and he stayed there, on his bed, his head hung low and his hands gripping harshly the bedsheets. His heart seemed to beat strangely and Naruto took a deep breath before he swiftly and effortlessly put a bright smile on his face. His cheeks hurt a bit, reminding him that he had had a fight with the teme but that didn't matter.

He could remember it now.

Kaeru had actually touched him. Held him. Put his head against his chest.

"Kaeru-san is a dude," Naruto muttered for himself. His eyebrows furrowing while he munched on his lips.

He could remember it. A taunt chest with a heart beating fast. It was warm too.

Was that what the others could feel whenever they hugged their fathers?

Naruto sniffed and for a brief moment, he forgot about his empty bedroom and apartment. He forgot about his hurting cheeks and scratches. He forgot about everything else that wasn't Kaeru.

The boy suddenly sprang from his bed and jumped in his bedroom, trying to find his sandals and beanie. Once he had everything on him, he quickly got out of his apartment and stood in the middle of the busy street. His sky blue eyes blinked and he opened them wide while he tried to find Kaeru's smell.

But he couldn't find it. The Toad masked shinobi didn't have a distinctive smell, that was something that Naruto had always regretted. No matter when or where they both were, Naruto simply couldn't discern Kaeru's smell. And the strangest about that fact was that once he was next to the shinobi, he couldn't smell him. Or notice his chakra.

The blond shook his head and slapped his cheeks two times to stop that train of thoughts.

Kaeru-san was weird. But he was a good kind of weird.

Naruto nodded and glanced around him. There weren't a lot of ninjas around and that made him pout. He couldn't ask them if they had seen Kaeru. (Even if he was pretty sure that they would ignore him or don't know where the adult was...)

And then, the boy remembered about that strange masked man that had babysitted him when Kaeru-san had been away.

What was his name again?

Naruto pouted and squinted his eyes as he tried to remember the ninja's name. He could only remember that strangely familiar smell of pine and lightning but that was all. He shrugged and scratched pensively his chin.

Maybe the teme's brother would know?

Naruto shuddered briefly as he remembered those scary red eyes. But that didn't deter him from walking towards the Uchiha compound. Itachi had been nice during his babysitter mission. And he seemed to like him too as he had taken him to Ichiraku without complaining.

Also, he was friends with Kaeru-san.

No doubt that he would help him find him too.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Itachi tightened his hands into fists and felt his nails dugs into his palms until they pierced his skin. Yet, that didn't bother him at all.

What really bothered right now were those two red and familiar eyes on his baby brother's face.

"Sasuke," Itachi whispered breathlessly. "What happened?"

His little brother looked down and shuffled nervously on his bed, his fingers playing with his comforter as he leaned his chin on his bent legs. His eyes lost their red tint and went back to their habitual black. Itachi felt himself breathe again.

"I heard the Toad talk," the little boy mumbled.

Itachi observed him, noticing how he was looking more and more like their mother as the days passed and how long his eyelash were getting. But he also noticed the small creases of worry between Sasuke's eyebrows as well as the soreness of the boy's underlip. Sasuke had always had the habit to gnaw on it whenever he was stressed over something.

The ANBU tilted his head, his long hair falling silently over his shoulder while he smiled softly at his baby brother.

"He scared you," he stated calmly.

Sasuke blushed and immediately hid his face behind his knees. However, Itachi could still see his brother's neck and hid a chuckle when he noted how red it had become along with his ears.

"I thought that he was going to kill you and our family," was Sasuke's muffled explanation.

Itachi smiled fondly at his little brother. The latter seemed to sense it as he raised his head and looked at him with a sheepish expression. Sasuke had never liked that his older brother always noticed his weakness. But that was what made Itachi his brother.

He always knew what was wrong with him and always helped him. He was his brother.

Sasuke blinked and felt the all too familiar small tinge of pain when Itachi flickered softly his forehead with two fingers.

"Foolish little brother," the ANBU commented with a fond sigh. Sasuke squinted his eyes, trying to see the two fingers pressing against his sensible forehead (the dobe had scratched it pretty deep during their little fight) and he pursed his lips.

Once again, Itachi had had to point his weakness.

The fingers' pressure weakened and Sasuke widened his eyes slightly when he felt his brother lean his forehead against his.

"You weren't the only one," Itachi whispered. He had his eyes closed and Sasuke noticed how his stress marks had increased around his nose.

That meant that his brother had been extremely stressed recently. Was it during his mission?

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and gasped softly when he finally understood.

Itachi had barged in his bedroom without announcing himself like he did habitually. And he had done that one day before he was meant to arrive in Konoha. Also, the teen had glared at the Toad jounin. Something that Itachi almost never did.

"You don't trust Kaeru?" the younger Uchiha asked in a small voice.

Itachi sighed and took a step back. Sasuke scrunched his nose, he kind of missed the proximity of his brother. But he wasn't a chicken so he didn't comment it and just shuffled a bit on his bed. The comforter pooled around his feet and the little boy's fingers dug into it. His brother made a small face, his lips pursed a bit as his black eyes glanced briefly at the still open window from where Shisui had escaped seconds after the Toad's disappearance. His pupils flashed briefly in red and Itachi tightened his fists, his arms hanging lax.

It was all very discrete but Sasuke noticed it nonetheless.

Itachi was confused. Maybe even lost.

"I don't know," he finally admitted through his gritted teeth.

Sasuke made a small sound of surprise. It wasn't something that Itachi said frequently. Also, seeing his brother being so confused didn't seem right for the boy. Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows and remembered what had happened previously in his bedroom, how the Toad had protected everyone from the red haired intruder. How Shisui hadn't attacked the masked jounin moments before the redhead's arrival.

How the Uchiha had observed with stern eyes the Toad.

"Shisui," Sasuke said softly.

Itachi blinked and cocked his head, his eyes looking at his brother with curiosity.

The younger Uchiha cleared his throat nervously and shrugged slightly. "Shisui," he repeated with a more decided voice. "He acted strange with Kaeru."

"Strange?" Itachi said as he raised an eyebrow. He felt his stomach churn and remembered his previous mission.

Had Shisui been asked to do the same when Itachi had been forced to retire from it?

Itachi gritted his teeth and felt his nails pierce his palms. Again. If he hadn't been on a forced sick leave, if someone hadn't told the Hokage about his degenerative sickness, if Kaeru hadn't been there, Shisui wouldn't have been asked to kill their whole family to stop them from a coup d'état.

Once again, the Toad was to blame.

And that was probably why Shisui was acting strangely with Kaeru.

Itachi's eyes turned into his Sharingan and he tightened his jaw.

"Itachi?" Sasuke asked with a worried face.

His brother didn't look at him and turned his head to the open window.

"Itachi?" this time, Sasuke's voice was weaker.

Itachi finally looked at him and the younger Uchiha widened his eyes in surprise.

"Stop worrying, foolish little brother," the teenager said as he flickered Sasuke's forehead. "Everything will be fine."

Sasuke frowned harshly and opened his mouth to protest. Nothing was fine! They were suspecting Kaeru, the man who didn't have any problem subduing one of the most respected man in Konoha! Of all the people!

But if his brother told him that it'll be fine, Sasuke would suck his protest up and silently nod. He didn't want to add more to those stress marks.

Suddenly they both tensed and after a glance they jumped through the window. Sasuke skidded a bit on the roof but Itachi was quick on his feet and put a hand on his little brother's back to help him not fall. The two brothers nodded to each other and began to run on the roofs, Itachi always at some steps behind Sasuke to save him if he were to fall down.

They arrived at the end of the Uchiha compound and Sasuke clicked his tongue in aggravation.

"Why is the dobe here?" He muttered to himself.

"Sasuke," Itachi chided softly. "Don't call your friend like that. It is unsightly."

The younger Uchiha blushed and he mumbled a vague apology to his brother.

"Don't do it again," the latter simply said as he ruffled softly his little brother's hair.

Sasuke pouted and reluctantly nodded.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Naruto glared at the man and folded his arms on his chest.

"No," he spat as he felt the now all too familiar anger warm his belly.

It was like his bellybutton was on fire. Not really painful but disturbing nonetheless.

"Move," the Uchiha grunted threatheningly. He already had one of his hands ready over his mouth, probably thinking of using one of his family's fire technique.

Yet that didn't deter Naruto. Now that he was just in front of the Uchiha compound doors, he wasn't going to run away.

"No," he repeated, his eyes narrowing as their habitual blue colour took a rather nasty red.

The Uchiha's nostrils flared briefly and he pursed his lips before he opened his mouth. He was going to use a Katon. Naruto knew it, Kaeru had taught him about the Uchiha's favorite techniques, saying that a future Hokage had to know everything about his shinobi. And against a Katon, the only thing that he could do was to avoid it. The blonde readied his body, crouching just a bit so his bent knees could help him jump further if he had to. But he didn't have to as something stopped the Uchiha short. He coughed loudly, his breath infused with chakra choking him a bit as two familiar silhouettes appeared at his sides.

Naruto blinked, his eyes back to their normal sky blue as he observed with surprise the two Uchiha brothers. Uchiha Itachi had his eyes red, Sharingan swirling threateningly at the Uchiha guard while Sasuke's Sharingan assessed silently the situation. The raven haired boy blinked slowly, his lips turning into a mocking smirk as he realised that Naruto was looking at him with a flabbergasted expression.

"Rei," Itachi said quietly. "What happened?" He cocked his head and let his eyes slide over the blonde's surprised face before going back to the guard's slightly annoyed one.

Rei's eyes flickered briefly to Naruto and he took a deep breath. He then gritted his teeth and shook his head.

"I just couldn't let him in," he hissed softly through his gritted teeth. Rei put a hand on Itachi's forearm and continued in a whisper. "Fugaku-sama's order. He's not happy about what happened earlier. Same with the ginger kid. They can't get in."

Itachi nodded sternly and glanced back to Naruto. The boy was looking with a bright smile at Sasuke and commenting about his freaking cool eyes.

All in all, Naruto looked perfectly normal and defenceless. But they had both felt it. And it had been the second time of the day.

The Kyuubi was finally influencing the boy.

"I see," Itachi said. "I'll tell him. You can get back to your patrol, Rei."

The other Uchiha nodded with a small relieved smile and bowed curtly his head before leaving. Sasuke looked at his back and he pursed his lips in distaste. He didn't like that.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"What are you doing here?" the teme's brother asked him with his habitual calm voice.

Naruto blinked. That was a nice change from those suspicious glances that he had gotten since he had tried to enter the compound. That was also probably why he liked better the teme's brother to the masked old man.

"I was looking for you," the blonde admitted with a small shrug. He heard Sasuke snort loudly and he glared at the black haired kid.

"Why?" Itachi asked with an eyebrow raised with curiosity.

The last time that he had seen the blond jinchūriki, Naruto had been unconscious and protected by his little brother. He sincerely wondered what had happened to end like that.

"I need to find someone and I thought that you could help," Naruto answered with a bright smile.

Itachi smiled softly and nodded before he glanced behind him and sighed.

"Let's go," he whispered as he put his hands on Sasuke and Naruto's shoulders. He pushed them softly and they went away from the Uchiha compound.

Behind them, Uchiha Fugaku folded his arms on his chest and narrowed his eyes.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"Who are you looking for?" Itachi asked once they were all seated in front of the dango stand.

Sasuke made a face, scrunching his nose as he observed with disgust his dango stick. Meanwhile, Naruto munched over his two dango sticks and smiled with his mouth closed. Itachi noticed that the blond wouldn't have thought of keeping his mouth close when he was eating before Kaeru's apparition.

So the Toad had also taught the jinchūriki about decorum.

Naruto gulped down his dango and let out a relieved sight before he jumped on his feet. Sasuke glanced at him briefly before going back to glaring at his dango stick. It was still untouched and the green tea sauce was slowly dripping over his fingers. The young Uchiha noticed it and grimaced.

"That old man with a mask," the blond finally answered cheerily. "The one who was with you when you took Kaeru-san's mission."

Itachi pursed his lips and licked his fingers clean. He put the now empty dango sticks on his plate and tilted his head. "Hatake Kakashi?" he asked with a surprised face when Naruto nodded with excitation.

"Yeah, that man, I need to find him, dattebayo!" the blonde exclaimed happily.

Sasuke snorted softly and looked at his older brother's empty plate, noticing without real surprise that there were now eighteen sticks in it and that Itachi was already eating another dango dumpling.

"I see," Itachi stated as he put his empty stick on his plate. ("Nineteen," muttered Sasuke) the ANBU frowned slightly and pushed softly his plate towards the blonde. "Why are you looking for him?"

Naruto smiled foxily at him and tilted his head. "That's a secret, dattebayo!" he cheekily retorted and Itachi shook his head with an amused chuckle.

"Very well," the older Uchiha said and Naruto almost pranced around with happiness. "He tends to spend his days in the fourth training ground. Maybe you'll find him there."

"Thank you, Wrinkles!" the young Uzumaki was already running towards the training ground and Itachi blinked.

" _Wrinkles_?" he repeated with disbelief.

Sasuke merely passed him his dango stick and the teenager ate it with an owlish expression.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

They were finally fighting. The Toad masked jounin was actually attacking him from time to time, his limbs always avoiding his sand and then striking his sand armour violently, making it shudder at every blow. Gaara had never felt so alive.

He was smiling, his teeth shining while his eyes sparkled in excitation. Normally, he didn't have to use all of his sand, his preys were always too slow or abandoned too quickly. But Kaeru wasn't like that.

He had his body clones to protect himself and switch with, he used strange attacks made of wind and chakra and above everything else, he never ran away from his sand. It was like the jounin merely danced around his sand. Gaara found that sight exhilarating.

The redhead was beginning to break a sweat and the Toad's clothes were already a bit ruffled and ripped at some places. But none wanted to stop fighting.

It was like their first day in the desert. That memory made the redhead's smile increase and he raised his two arms, manipulating his sand until it formed a gigantic animal. It looked like a sand raccoon and Gaara widened his eyes in surprise when he heard his opponent whistle in amazement. The Toad actually began to clap loudly and swiftly jumped to avoid the gigantic paw from the sand raccoon.

' ** _Fusion with it_** ,' the voice in his head whispered seducingly. ' _ **It'll make you stronger! Leave me free reigns and I'll kill him! Kill him! Kill!'**_

' _No_ ,' Gaara shook his head and narrowed his eyes. ' _I'll be the one to kill him. Stay put, he's mine to kill.'_

' _ **Kill! Kill! Kill, kill, kill, kill!'**_

Gaara ignored the bloodlust rising in his mind and he observed the Toad attack the sand raccoon with a small orb of moving chakra. The redhead widened his eyes in shock when he saw his creation explode and he swiftly reassembled his sand, ordering it to come back to his sand gourd.

The masked adult raised an approbative thumb at him for his quick thinking and Gaara simply nodded.

_**'Kill, kill, kill, kill!'** _

Gaara used his sand, making him fly until he was hovering over the jounin and he quickly lashed his next attack. A small tendril of sand slashed and circled the adult's neck while the latter had to counter a shower of bullets made of sand. The redhead smirked and tightened the tendril's hold on the Toad's neck.

' _ **Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!**_ '

The Toad tried to scratch away the sand around his neck, his moves were beginning to get sloppier and Gaara's smirk widened. He was finally going to kill the man. Yet, there was something wrong with that.

He couldn't hear that annoying voice screaming for mercy. Or taunting him.

' _ **Killkillkillkillkillkill**_!"

Gaara saw red and his instincts suddenly lashed out. He jumped away from the Toad masked jounin and frowned harshly when he saw the blond kid from earlier standing in front of his opponent.

" **You**!" the blond boy screeched with a raspy voice while he panted loudly. It was obvious that he had run. "What are you doing to Kaeru-san!"

Gaara cocked his head and blinked.

"I'm trying to kill him," he deadpanned.

Wasn't it already obvious enough? The sand around the adult's neck? The Toad's weakening protests as he tried to stay alive?

Was that kid too dumb to realise it?

Gaara blinked another time and decided to help the other boy. The Toad had told him before that helping people would help him feel better and that it would help with that disturbing voice in his head.

Thus, he decided to help the boy get rid of his stupidity. And as Gaara didn't know how someone could do that, he decided to take the easy way out.

Killing him would do.

He readied his sand and suddenly froze. The voice in his head was too silent. The air was too still too.

" **What did you say?** " the blond kid growled threateningly.

Gaara blinked and smiled in content.

That boy felt like the Toad. And he didn't have a mask. Killing him would be as great as killing the jounin.

"I'll kick your ass!" the blonde roared and his eyes turned red. " **Nobody kills my family, did you heard that, Tanuki bastard?!** "

The redhead smirked and glanced at the unmoving body of the Toad before looking intensively at the fuming boy. He had a strange aura around him, almost like his chakra was too big for his little body and Gaara briefly wondered if the blonde was like him before he shook away that thought.

"Come," he just said.

The blonde screamed and the earth exploded.

Gaara had never felt so alive.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Shisui pinched his nose and rolled his eyes.

"Can you please explain to me what happened?" he asked with an annoyed voice.

Kaeru shrugged and the Uchiha raised his hands to the sky. Suddenly, being a florist didn't sound as ridiculous as he had thought before if it meant that he didn't have to deal with the Toad's nonsense. Shisui huffed and glanced another time at the destroyed training ground, almost wincing whenever his eyes stopped on a particularly deep crater or to some of the still burning flames. There were also chunks of tree everywhere and Shisui had the foreboding that he'd be the one who would get the scolding for all of those damages.

"How can two brats as tiny as that," he continued with an annoyed whisper as he glanced at the charges that they both had on their back, "do as much damage as that!"

Kaeru loudly snorted and shrugged, the red haired head on his right shoulder moving slightly before the kid snuggled closer to the masked jounin's neck. Shisui rolled his eyes and slightly looked back so he could glance at his blonde charge. The Uzumaki brat was sleeping, his scratched and bruised face nestled against his dark hair and Shisui had to admit that Naruto's hot puffs of breath were tickling him. The Uchiha tried to ignore that fact and the two men continued jumping on the rooftops of Konoha, going back to the Uzumaki residence.

However, as the time passed, Shisui felt his arms weaken and he frowned.

"Hey!" he called and Kaeru immediately stopped near him, his head cocked. Shisui noticed that the redhead's eyes were slightly open and that the kid had stunning jade coloured eyes. Also, they were pupiless. "Let's switch kids!"

Kaeru shook his head and pointed with his chin at the slightly awake redhead. Shisui then noticed the swarming sand around the two and he gulped silently.

"Okay," he accepted reluctantly. "You win for this time."

The Toad's shoulders moved and Shisui squinted his eyes. Was he laughing at him?

Knowing Kaeru, it was highly probable.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

He straightened his back and whistled softly as he observed the all too familiar rooftops and mountains. It had really been too long since his last visit.

He glanced at his backpack, noticing that the summoning scroll was still a little burned over and made a small grimace. That was the last time that he tried to make a fire when he was totally drunk. But what a night.

He shook his head as flashes of all those crazy nights during his travels passed through his weary mind and a small smile tugged at his lips. He made his back creak and whistled happily to himself.

The time to come home had finally come. His smile widened when he remembered that his former teammate was also home. Now, if that stubborn snake realised his errors, all would be well.

After all, the child of the prophecy had made his first move.

"Mmm," he hummed pensively as he rubbed his chin. "I wonder how many things will change after this..."

He shrugged and jumped until he was at the doors of the Hidden Village of Konoha.

"Let's see," he mumbled as his apparition caused a loud commotion from the guards. "How should I name this story?"

"Jiraya!" a familiar female voice called and the man smiled brightly at his former teammate.

"Hey there, Tsunade," he greeted happily. "You're looking as young as ever!"

Tsunade let the habitual flattery slide aside and folded her arms on her generous bosom. Jiraya for once didn't even glance at it and merely looked with fondness at the other Sannin.

"Let's go," the woman shrugged and began to walk, Jiraya behind her. It felt almost comforting to get back to this familiar setting. The only thing that was missing was the dark haired genius and she could have been fooled that they were back to their genin years.

"It's nice to see that nothing has really changed," Jiraya commented as he eyed Tsunade's behind.

The kunoichi sighed heavily and turned her head until her eyes could meet the white haired man's.

"Your...  _disciple_  is here," she stated with a roll of her eyes.

"I see," Jiraya drawled with an amused smile. "He's still using that excuse?"

"He's now parading with a Toad mask," Tsunade shook her head as they walked to their habitual bar. "Who wouldn't think of you?"

"That's too nice of him," the Sannin faked a tear and sniffed while he wiped it. "Where is he? We have thinks to talk about."

"Oh?" Tsunade smiled smugly at him and took a seat while the barman served her a cup of sake. "Master-disciple's things?"

Jiraya's lips quirked up and he took a seat beside his friend (and not so secret crush) while he accepted a cup of sake too.

"You could call it like that," he admitted as he sipped quietly his alcohol.

A sudden explosion shook the bar and Jiraya widened his eyes in surprise.

"What was that?" he asked and Tsunade chortled as she put her empty cup down.

"That," she said smugly. "That was your disciple wreaking havoc in Konoha. Like he always does. And now, let's play a game~ who's the one who'll have to pay for all of the damage caused by his disciple?"

Jiraya blanched and he leaned loudly his forehead on the counter.

"Why do I feel like he did that on purpose?" he weakly complained.

Tsunade just patted his back and asked for another cup of sake.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Kaeru observed with a critical eye the fuming crater on what had been previously a public bench and nodded to himself. From his experience, this should amount the wanted sum.

"Should I ask you why you did that?" Uchiha Shisui asked him as he verified briefly that his charge was still on his back.

That Rasengan had scared him quite a bit and he had almost left the blond boy fall from his back. Kaeru glanced at him and shifted briefly his hands, making sure that the almost slumbering redhead was comfortably settled there and he tilted his head. He then began to move his feet, digging his heels on the soil so they left trails behind them and swiftly wrote his answer.

「Revenge is a dish best savoured cold.」

"Against a bench?" Shisui said with incredulity.

Kaeru smiled under his mask and shrugged. The Uchiha didn't have to know the truth behind his words.

* * *

**Omake**

* * *

Itachi tightened his hands into fists and felt his nails dugs into his palms until they pierced his skin. Yet, that didn't bother him at all.

What really bothered right now were those two red and familiar eyes on his baby brother's face.

"Sasuke," Itachi whispered breathlessly. "What happened?"

His little brother opened his mouth to answer him but Itachi suddenly raised his bloodied hand to stop him. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to find out how his adorable baby brother had gotten his Sharingan. Itachi's breath suddenly stopped as he realised fully what had happened.

Sasuke had his Sharingan.

The little boy with a cheerful smile and wide dark eyes full of wonder was gone. Now, Sasuke was an Uchiha, a future killer. Itachi pictured his baby brother smirking smugly at his enemy like every Uchiha did and felt his chest pang.

Where had gone his adorable baby brother?

He was gone.  _Gone_.

Itachi's breath hitched and he finally let his hand fall. Sasuke looked at him with a worried face and answered him in a soft whisper.

"I heard the Toad talk."

Itachi then realised that he had been the one who had caused little and innocent Sasuke's disappearance. He felt his eyes warm and it itched atrociously. Then, tears of blood fell over his face and he sniffed discreetly.

"Brother!" Sasuke screamed in panic as it was the first time that he had seen his brother cry. And those were tears of blood!

"Sasuke," Itachi mumbled darkly as his pupils morphed into a Mangekyo Sharingan. "I swear to avenge your death!"

...

Sasuke blinked, his eyes going back to their normal black colour and he sighed heavily. All that panic for nothing.

"Brother, I'm still alive," Sasuke deadpanned.

Itachi ignored him and continued plotting on his revenge over Kaeru's affront.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help it but I had to write that omake. It's probably not even funny but I had to. Because a hyper protective older brother Itachi is something that needed to be written in this story. And also because I'm still trying to find out how to make him obtain his Mangekyo Sharingan. (That's a joke, I already have everything planned. Except the parings...)
> 
> Also, next chapter: Kinship.


	7. Kinship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, for this chapter, I really wanted to introduce a lot of characters. But I couldn't. Still, I finally got to write the scene that made me begin this story so I'm pretty happy with this chapter. Also, I'm shipping Jiraya and Tsunade so hard that it isn't funny anymore. What else? I should stop gushing over Gaara and Naruto's cuteness. I'm the author and I shouldn't do that. (But I'll still do it...)
> 
>  
> 
> And (going back to the story), sometimes I feel as if I didn't write enough. There is so much more to write before Naruto becomes a genin. And it's now that I realise that this will be a long story. A really long story. I hope that you'll enjoy it.   
> (Also, I was supposed to put a scene with young Sakura. But it didn't mesh well with the flow. Maybe in the next chapter...)  
> By the way, I'm really unsure about Neji's characterisation in this chapter. It was just so hard to write it... I'm doubting the whole scene with him now. Knowing me, I'll probably rewrite it in the future.

Shisui scrunched his nose and furrowed his eyebrows. The hot breath fanning his neck tickled him but he tried to ignore that fact. Also, holding Naruto was beginning to tire him. Or maybe it was because he had used his Mangekyo. The Uchiha didn't know why but he was tired. And as such, he only wanted to crash on the nearest couch and sleep away the crankiness that he was feeling creeping on him.

Shisui was someone who liked to be well rested. Very much like pretty much every Uchiha. Except for Itachi, that boy could go on a whole week without sleeping. (And that was clearly a sign showing that Itachi wasn't human. That boy was a robot and nobody could make Shisui stop believing it)

The sudden creak when the door was opened shook Shisui from his rather strange thoughts and he shook his head slightly, his dark hair brushing against Naruto's scratched cheek and the boy whined slightly. The Uchiha made a small sound of apologise and followed Kaeru. The latter had already gone into the small apartment, his charge's sand rumbling around him. That didn't seem to disturb the Toad as he merely shook his shoulders (was he laughing?) and walked until he entered a bedroom. He swiftly put the redhead on the bed and turned his head inquisitively towards Shisui.

The dark haired shinobi nodded silently and put Naruto next to the sleeping jinchūriki.

Then, as he took a step back and observed the two sleeping kids, he pursed his lips.

"Is it really a good idea to put them together?" he whispered while he frowned heavily. "After all the damage done in the fourth training ground..."

Kaeru shrugged and waved idly his left hand before he straightened his back and opened the window.

"Where are you going?" Shisui inquired while his frown deepened. He could already feel the wrinkles on his forehead if he kept acting like that. (Soon, he would have the same stress marks than Itachi...)

The masked jounin turned softly his head and tilted it. From what Shisui could remember from Naruto's nonsensical babbles, it was Kaeru's way to smile.

「Keep watch on the kids.」 he wrote.

Shisui tried to stop himself from frowning even more and sighed heavily.

"Very well," he reluctantly accepted. A relieved sigh followed his answer and Shisui raised his eyebrows, he hadn't expected the Toad to be that relieved. Was he that preoccupied by the two jinchūriki?

Shisui shook his head softly and pulled the chair from the little desk in Naruto's bedroom until it was next to the boy's bed and he sat with a heavy sigh.

"You owe me," he absentmindedly commented.

A small whistle of agreement followed his statement and Shisui chuckled. He closed his eyes and felt the Toad's chakra vanish.

' _Body clone then_ ,' he thought. ' _I wonder when he swapped with it..._ '

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The Fourth Kazekage thrummed lightly his fingers on the armrest and he furrowed slightly his eyebrows. They had discussed their new and quite fragile alliance until the sunset was already showing its flaming colours through the wide window of the Hokage's office.

"Now that we have cleared the path," Sarutobi Hiruzen said quietly as he took a puff of his kiseru. "The only thing left is to decide how we will deal with Kiri..."

The Fourth pursed his lips and nodded faintly. He could still feel the bad aftertaste of discovering that he had been spied all those years without even noticing it.

"To be honest," the Hokage closed his eyes and sighed wearily. "I'd like to avoid going head first against Kiri. Even if eight years passed, we are still recovering from the Kyuubi attack. As you are from the Ichibi, right?"

The Kazekage frowned and groaned vaguely. He didn't like admitting those facts but they were the thruth. Currently, they were too weak to go against Kiri.

"Then, maybe we should send a team to negotiate with the Mizukage," Hiruzen leaned his chin over his folded hands and smiled weakly. "Let's see if diplomacy can win this time..."

The redhead scoffed softly and he rolled his eyes.

"And after that try?" he asked calmly.

"After," the Hokage said sternly, his eyes taking a sharp gleam and his lips tightening into a firm line. "We prepare to war."

"Very well," the Kazekage inclined his head. Then, as he glanced at the sunset, he furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips. "Shall we send him?"

Hiruzen sighed heavily and closed his eyes while he tried to ignore the now familiar sound of shattering glass.

"Take a seat," he muttered as he creaked an eye open and glared halfheartedly at the shinobi. "You came at the right time, Kaeru."

The masked jounin nodded swiftly his head and gave him a thumbs-up before he suddenly took the only empty chair and flopped down gracelessly. He crossed his legs, his black pants ruffling in the otherwise silent room, and tilted his head, his left cheek leaning against his hand. The Fourth Kazekage could almost picture the shinobi smirking smugly at them.

The Hokage seemed the think the same because he sighed heavily and pinched his nose with an aggravated sound. The clock ticked loudly in the office and Kaeru shifted slightly in his chair. The Kazekage merely observed him with judging eyes and stayed silent.

Finally, as the seconds were getting longer and longer with the increasing tension, Hiruzen placed his palms on his desk and cleared his throat loudly.

"There is a war coming," he said gravely.

Kaeru didn't flinch nor move.

"We will first send mediators but if they were to fail," Sarutobi continued as his face darkened ominously. "There will be a war."

The Kazekage coughed softly and his clothes shuffled slightly. He was unsettled.

"Suna," he said calmly, his voice was even and his face didn't show what he was really thinking. Nonetheless, the two Konoha shinobi knew perfectly what kind of thoughts the redhead had, "is now allied with Konoha against Kiri. You said that you aren't part to any Hidden Village, what will be your action?"

Kaeru's head straightened a bit and he folded his hands over his right knees, his leg bent so his knees was against his chest. The left leg was nonchalantly stretched and both Kage could see that he was stomping quietly his foot to an unknown tune. And then, the two older men understood the Toad's answer.

「I'll be the mediator.」he signalled by morse code.

The Kazekage frowned and he opened his mouth.

"We can't just trust you on this," he argued and his Golden Dust rumbled unhappily around him. The Hokage looked at him with desaprobation. "I propose a team of mediators, both from Konoha and Suna."

The Fourth stopped talking and gritted his teeth. What he really wanted was to send his best shinobi and stop all of this before it went of control. And if it meant killing the Mizukage, he didn't see why he shouldn't do it. However, Suna was short of shinobi and money. And conflicts always brewed famines, plagues and countless deaths even if it gave them a considerable increase of income.

The Kazekage shook his head. He had already thought about that the day he decided to go to Konoha.

"A three man squad," Hiruzen proposed, his eyes twinkling in approbation as he took a puff of his kiseru. "A shinobi from Konoha, another from Suna and Kaeru."

The Toad stomped loudly and jumped from his chair. Without any last glance to the two powerful Kage, he jumped through the shattered window and disappeared.

"I already have a name in my mind," the Kazekage said after a little while during which they both looked at the dark sky. "But he's still in Suna so we'll have to wait for him."

"Mine is being hospitalised," Hiruzen chuckled, his kiseru between his teeth and he met the Fourth's eyes. "So I guess that this means that your son will get to enjoy Kaeru's charms for a little while..."

The Kazekage rolled his eyes and accepted silently a cup of tea from the Hokage.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

For the first time of his live, when he woke up, Naruto noticed that he had slept next to someone. The little boy furrowed his eyebrows as he had still his eyes closed and took a deep breath. He was still in that state where one wasn't really awake and yet not sleeping. He whined softly, shifting his limbs until his hand grazed something that clearly wasn't a comforter. Puzzled, Naruto flexed his fingers, running his pads over the thing that he couldn't really determine and he felt a small coo of wonder escape from his throat when the thing under his fingers actually moved.

His mind was still a bit sluggish, his previous fight had almost left him without energy and the boy couldn't find in himself the drive to open his eyes. So he stayed in his bed, his eyes closed and his stretched hand gripping a foreign thing.

And then, the thing shifted and Naruto felt something, a puff of warm air, fan over his face. He scrunched his nose, eyebrows furrowed as he clearly didn't appreciate being fanned by a breeze that smelled of gizzard and green tea. Also, what kind of wind smelled of gizzard? Wasn't that a dish that almost no one in Konoha liked?

Wait a minute... Was he actually sleeping next to someone else? (And a certain someone who ate gizzard... Seriously, why gizzard?)

Naruto woke up with a start and quickly sat up, his eyes open wide as he looked in shock at the redhead in his bed.

"What are you doing here!" he screeched while glaring at his enemy.

That redhead bastard had wanted to kill Kaeru-san. At the mere thought of someone actually trying to kill his friend and family, Naruto gritted his teeth and felt his blood rush to his head. He clenched his fingers on his T-shirt, trying to keep his calm.

Kaeru-san hated when he trashed his bedroom.

The redhead's eyes suddenly opened and Naruto snarled when he saw those jade eyes look at him intensively.

"You are still alive," the bastard said with his deadpan voice.

Naruto almost rolled his eyes. Almost. And that was mostly because he had noticed the Uchiha observing them silently.

"GYAAA!" the blonde screeched as he felt from the bed. The redhead blinked and glanced at the jounin before he looked back at the scowling boy on the floor. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? WERE YOU WATCHING US SLEEP?! THAT'S SO CREEPY!"

"Creepy?" the other kid blinked another time and then looked at the bed. "So this is considered creepy?"

"Not you, him!" Naruto huffed and puffed his cheeks before pointing his thumb at Shisui's chest. "He's the creepy one, dattebayo!"

"Dattebayo." The redhead simply stated and the blond boy rolled his eyes.

He sure as hell wasn't going to explain that.

"Where's Kaeru-san?" He mumbled gloomily when he realised that his first friend wasn't around.

How was he going to survive being surrounded by redhead bastards and creepy jounins without Kaeru-san? And how had he ended in his bed with the bastard? Had it been Kaeru-san?

"Who knows," Shisui retorted with a small sigh. "He just told me to keep watch and then left."

"So he fled," the redhead deadpanned.

He was still in the bed, his green eyes observing the comforter and sheets with intensity. It was then that Naruto noticed that the other kid had slept with his sandals in his bed.

"Noooo," he whined as he shook his head vividly. "Now there will be mud and sand in my bed! Kaeru-san will get mad at me again..."

The red-haired boy blinked and with a mere flick of his chin, the sand raised from Naruto's bed and hovered over it. The blonde observed it float with mesmerised eyes and his mouth agape.

"I didn't realise it before," he mumbled as he slowly got up. "But that trick is actually pretty neat!"

Naruto beamed at the redhead and the latter blinked in confusion. Then, he sighed and his green eyes seemed to lighten a bit as he stretched his hand to the blonde. Naruto observed it with furrowed eyebrows and he looked at it inquisitively.

"Gaara," the redhead said sternly.

Naruto sucked his lip and cocked his head. Then, after a brief glance at Shisui who seemed to be holding a laugh, he took the redhead's hand and shook it with a wide smile.

"Naruto," he answered brightly before he added with a chirpy voice, "and I'm going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo!"

"I see," Gaara commented and he frowned slightly. "Should I also give my life goal?"

Naruto nodded vividly and his blue eyes sparkled happily while he watched the redhead purse his lips pensively. Now that the other was behaving correctly, the blond couldn't understand why he had been so hateful towards him. Naruto had never been one to hate at first sight, it would make him like the others who had always despised him even if he hadn't done anything at all to deserve that. He wanted to be like Kaeru, someone who had picked up and saved a kid ostracised by a whole village.

"Then I guess that it'd be to have many great friends," the redhead shrugged lightly and Naruto looked at him with a puzzled look.

"You want friends," he said with a tense voice.

Gaara nodded.

Naruto squinted his eyes and pursed his lips. He could relate with that wish. He could relate so much that it hurt. The small boy clenched his fingers around his T-shirt helm and gave a shuddering sigh.

That boy, Gaara, had wanted to kill Kaeru. He had even almost succeeded in it. And Naruto was like him. Naruto could have ended like him. His chest hurt when he thought about that.

"I'm sure that you'll have the best friends ever!" he finally added and as he said those words, Naruto noticed that Gaara's shoulders had imperceptibly relaxed. So the other kid had actually been conscious of the weirdness of his life goal. Naruto squinted his eyes and smiled widely at the other boy. "Because you also have me, 'ttebayo!"

Gaara widened his eyes and tilted slightly his head. His hair was ruffled after his epic fight against Naruto and the impromptu nap that had followed but nobody commented it. Mostly because they were too surprised by the small smile that curved the redhead's lips.

"We're friends now?" he asked to confirm his hunch.

"Of course we're, dattebayo!"

Gaara smiled. And Naruto beamed at him.

There was no way that they would go back to their loneliness now.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Feet padded on the tatamis and he swiftly hunched back to avoid a flying fist.

"So this is where you were hiding!"

He narrowed his eyes and avoided another fist, flexing his legs so he was leaning forward. His black tresses almost obstructed his field of vision and he gritted his teeth when a foot hit harshly his stomach.

"Don't give me that kind of excuses! We both know that you're lying trough your teeth! (Not that you're actually talking but well...) You look like shit."

He somersaulted and raised his two hands to stop his opponent's attack. The latter grunted and he took that chance to strike back. His smaller limbs sprang into action and he swiftly hit the bent knees.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I also look like shit. You didn't need to tell me that... Since when were you that rude?"

He was panting now. His eyes were also hazy from their continuous use and he rubbed the back of his hand against his sweaty forehead. His bandages were dampened in sweat, that made him scrunch his face in disgust.

"Really? And I wonder why you're still a bachelor... You won't be able to seduce the ladies with manners like those, brat..."

He rolled on the tatamis and the spot where he had been previously was hit harshly by his opponent's fists. He widened his eyes, their hazy sheen increasing as he gritted his teeth and held his ground against his opponent. His hands were shaking slightly with the evident strain and he let out an heavy sigh.

"Right. Let's make it short, I don't think that we'll get more time alone. I went there and talked with them. They are following the first path."

He fell, his feet slipping over his sweat and he let out an unmanly yelp as his opponent put his palm over his chest, just over his biggest chakra path.

"I know... This could end very badly. That's why you shouldn't hide anymore. Anyway, what's with that mask? Is it an homage? I'm honoured!"

He narrowed his eyes in anger and suddenly spun on his hands, his stretched legs sending his opponent flying. He jumped to his feet and was quick to deal with the latter, pushing a chakra infused thumb against the back of his opponent's head. The man fell on the tatamis, unconscious and he scoffed slightly before he whipped his head to the dojo roof, his opalescent eyes glaring daggers at the two men who were happily lunging on it during his training hours.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with an icy voice. "This is Hyuuga ground, you shouldn't be here!"

"My, what a feisty young one," one of the men commented as he raised his hands in a defensive fashion.

He had long white hair tied in a ponytail and a red haori along with the typical Japanese geta. Not really the shoes that a shinobi would wear but that didn't really matter to him. The second man was more interesting. The now famous porcelain mask along with those black clothes that hid pretty much everything of his body. The Toad masked jounin.

The Toad cocked his head and waved carelessly a hand.

He bristled, was the masked jounin mocking him?

"I see, I see," the white haired man nodded while he rubbed his chin with an important air. "I finally get why you're so keen on that brat... Ruffling his feathers gives a really nice feeling."

The Toad nodded excitedly his head and the Hyuuga narrowed his eyes. He could almost see sparkles and flower flowing around the masked jounin and that irked him. How could he be so happy of annoying him!

"Get down," he hissed through his gritted teeth. "And fight me!"

The Toad whistled happily and suddenly was already in front of the younger Hyuuga. He flickered lightly two fingers on the bandaged forehead and tilted his head, almost like he was pondering over something.

The Hyuuga swatted away the Toad's hand and bristled like an angry cat.

"What are you doing!" he hissed at him.

"He's telling you to relax," the white haired man drawled from the rooftop. He was sprawled over the tiles, his head supported by one hand while the other was twirling a pen absentmindedly. "You're too tense to fight him."

The Hyuuga frowned and froze when he felt two arms surround him and suddenly cage him against a taunt chest. He could feel the deep laugh running through the jounin's chest and nonetheless didn't even hear him laugh. He was too silent. Even his breathing was still as he laughed at him.

"Stop it," he glared at the Toad's chest. He really didn't want to look up to glare at the adult's face (or rather mask) so he settled on glaring at his chest.

As he still had his Byakugan on, the Hyuuga could see the jounin's chakra from up close and almost choked on air when he noticed it.

His chakra was abnormal. It was flowing everywhere around the jounin, almost like a storm of pure energy and at the same time, it wasn't moving. The Hyuuga couldn't explain really how it worked but the Toad's chakra wasn't normal. He had never seen something like that.

"Oh?" the white haired man cooed and tilted his head. He had his pen hanging under his nose and was squinting his eyes at the Hyuuga. "Seems like you have nice eyes, boy! Did my lovely disciple surprise you?"

The Toad huffed and he tightened his arms around the boy. The latter let out a surprised gasp when the jounin's hand ruffled his hair and he glared at the man.

This affront wouldn't be forgotten.

"Why are you here," he asked for the second time.

But this time, the Toad leaned his masked chin over his ruffled black hair and clicked loudly his tongue. The white haired man seemed to understand what he tried to convey because he sighed heavily and jumped from the rooftop. His geta touched the tatamis and the Hyuuga glared at him for that affront.

"Easy there," the man said with a booming voice. He took out his shoes and threw them at the Toad. The latter caught them swiftly and dropped them in the garden.

Where, the Hyuuga noticed then, his sandals had also been placed. He hadn't seen him do that. Even with his Byakugan.

"I'm Jiraya of the Sannin," the white haired man said with a big grin. "And that mute idiot is my disciple. Together, we're the beautiful toads of Konoha!"

"I never asked who you were," the Hyuuga deadpanned before he scowled at the Toad masked jounin.

The latter had dared to ruffle his hair another time. He was slowly getting to the point where he downright hated the mute.

"Then who are you?" the Sannin retorted as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"I'm Hyuuga Neji," the boy answered while he raised with pride his chin.

The Toad made a small sound, almost like a pop with his lips. He was standing next to the other man and seemed to be critically watching Neji. Not that he could really tell as the jounin was masked.

"Neji?" Jiraya said as he rubbed pensively his chin. "That wouldn't do, boy! It lacks appeal!"

"Appeal?" the Hyuuga furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips. "I don't see why my name should even have appeal. I don't need it."

"There is it!" the Sannin commented as he sighed heavily. "I finally understand what he was saying before... Boy, you totally aren't seeing the picture here! Brat, show him!"

The Toad facepalmed and shook his head. Jiraya growled and stomped his foot on the tatamis. That seemed to do the trick because the masked jounin sighed heavily and made a familiar seal before he was surround by smoke. When it dissipated, Neji widened his eyes in surprise when he saw that a woman had taken his spot.

"Now!" Jiraya said as he clapped loudly his hands. "Say your name again. But with more appeal. You wouldn't want to bore that young lady to death, right?"

The young Hyuuga watched with puzzled eyes the woman wearing a yukata with flowery embroideries that was smiling heartily at him. She looked like the perfect housewife and had bright blue eyes as well as whisker marks over her cheeks. (That was rather cute actually. Not that Neji was going to admit it loudly. It was still a man under a small genjutsu after all...)

"I'm Hyuuga Neji," he tersely said.

"Wrooooong," Jiraya booed with a grimace. "That's not how you talk with the ladies! You should go like this!"

He suddenly spun over his feet and was on one knee in front of the woman and took her hand with a devilish smirk.

"Pleased to meet you," he purred with hooded eyes. The woman shuddered and Neji furrowed his eyebrows, he couldn't understand what the Sannin (the title of Konoha' strongest shinobi) was doing. "I'm Mount Myobokugama's holy master Sannin, also known as Toad Sannin or simply Jiraya! But you can always call me darling~"

Neji folded his arms over his chest and stomped lightly his foot. The woman's right eye twitched and the young boy noticed that she was shuddering.

Was it in disgust? Horror?

But she, or rather the Toad, was disturbed by the Sannin's words. Was that what the white haired man had implied with 'appeal'? To disturb his opponent with his mere name?

Neji pursed his lips and nodded once. That method could be useful to him.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"I can't believe that you taught a brat, and a Hyuuga of all the brats in Konoha, how to woo women just to get out of a pinch," Tsunade of the Sannin as she poured sake in her cup.

The heap of white hair and desperation on her right side moaned pitifully and raised an empty cup. Tsunade chuckled and poured him some sake.

"Well," she drawled as she gazed at the alcohol in her cup. It mirrored her curious eyes and catlike smirk. "At least you got your little master-disciple chat, right?"

"Don't make me remember that..." Jiraya grumbled from his pit of desperation and self-depreciation. "He managed to mock me during all of our discussion. And he refused to let me see from up close his mask... My disciple is such an ungrateful brat!"

The white haired Sannin sniffed pitifully and downed his cup of sake before he leaned his cheek on his hand and glanced at the smiling Tsunade. The kunoichi was still swirling her sake, her lips pursed as she seemed to be reflecting on something.

"What about you?" Jiraya asked with a more serious voice. "How is little Shizune doing?"

But Tsunade could see what was underneath in his words.

"She's is fine," she said quietly. "We're fine." Tsunade emptied her cup of sake and put it down loudly in the counter.

Teuchi glanced at them and swiftly put another bottle of sake on the counter before he went back to his ramen. He knew when to not pry.

"Really?" Jiraya leaned back and looked up, watching the stars twinkle in the sky. "How long was it since your last visit to Konoha?"

"A long time," Tsunade admitted with a small smile. She was looking at the boiling ramen with fond and yet sad eyes. "It's strange how everything seems the same but has changed."

"Now, we're getting too emotional," the other Sannin chided softly. "I don't want to make a woman cry, that would be unsightly of me." He sighed and looked back at Tsunade. She was still gazing at the ramen. "I heard that you were back at the hospital. How is it going?"

"I have a tricky patient," she answered and her eyes were suddenly focused on Jiraya. She was back on business. "He seems to be affected by an hereditary disease so I'll probably have to make a whole checkup on his family."

"Seems though," Jiraya commented with a shrug. He then tensed and tightened his fingers around his empty cup of sake. "How are you dealing with your little problem?"

Tsunade scowled and gritted her teeth. The cup in her hand shattered to smithereens and Jiraya raised his eyebrows.

Well, that was pretty explicit.

"Your...  _ **lovely**_  disciple," hissed the kunoichi while she smiled sweetly at him, "forced me to follow a therapy with the Yamanaka..."

Jiraya's eyebrows raised even higher and he whistled softly in amazement.

"And how did he succeed in doing that?" he inquired. "Because you're the biggest pigheaded woman that I've ever met and... Ouch!"

Jiraya frowned and he cursed under his breath as he nursed his aching (and probably broken) ribs.

"I gave my word that I'll grant him three wishes," Tsunade mumbled gloomily as she poured sake in her former partner's cup. "It was his second..."

"And the first?" Jiraya inquired.

His disciple was someone really mysterious and to ask for three wishes from Tsunade was already a feat.

"Healing the Uchiha and some unnamed brat," she answered while downing his cup. "Also, he told me that the third wish wouldn't be asked before at least five years have passed..."

Jiraya frowned and rubbed his chin. What was his disciple thinking?

He had a plan, that was clear, but what kind of plan?

"I guess that the only thing left to do is to sit back and enjoy the spectacle," he whispered to himself.

Tsunade made a small sound of agreement and raised her cup at him.

"At the old fools who let a brat order them around," she said seriously, her brown eyes gleaming with power in the night.

"At the old fools who let a brat order them around," he acquiesced.

"Cheers," Teuchi exclaimed as he put two cups of ramen in front of the slightly tipsy Sannins. "This is on the house!"

"He," Tsunade chuckled. "It's nice to be home."

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Gaara observed with his habitual inexpressive face the loud blond kid, Naruto, argue with the Konoha jounin.

It was an adult with spiky black hair and eyes that could turn red. From what Gaara could remember from his father's rather short explanations, the jounin was part of Konoha police and his family had a powerful dojutsu. It made him want to fight and kill the adult.

But Gaara couldn't kill him in Naruto's house. That went against what Kaeru, his prey, had taught him. It wasn't polite to kill someone in a friend's house.

Unless that someone wanted to kill his friend, of course. There were always special circumstances. Those always let Gaara puzzled, why couldn't everything be just white and black? Everything was too difficult.

"Where is Kaeru-san?!" Naruto asked for what seemed to be the millionth time.

"Listen, kid," the dark haired jounin retorted with an aggravated sigh. "I. Don't. Know."

"Where is he?" The blond insisted and Gaara cocked his head.

Naruto seemed to be displeased by something. His eyes were shining strangely and the tip of his nose was getting redder by minutes. Also, his shoulders were slightly shaking and his energy seemed to dim down.

He didn't look at all like the fiery boy who had tried to kill him before.

Gaara frowned.

 _ **'He's so weak,**_ ' the Monster whispered in his head. ' _ **Killing him would be so easy... Ripping him to shreds... Until the whole room is coated with his warm and red blood...**_ '

 _'No_ ,' the redhead immediately refused. ' _Not in his bedroom_.'

"Where is Kaeru?" Gaara asked instead of dwelling in his thoughts.

"You too?" the jounin exclaimed. "I give up!"

He raised his hands and sighed heavily before he flopped down on his chair. Gaara cocked his head and blinked his eyes in confusion. Why was the jounin acting like that if he had given up? Wasn't he supposed to kill himself so they wouldn't get information from him?

"Gaara," Naruto said suddenly with a sharp voice.

The redhead blinked and looked at his friend. The blond was looking at him with his intense and unblinking blue eyes. And just like that, the Monster's voice dulled into a faint whisper and the crawling sand on his skin stopped to rumble threatheningly.

"Even if he's creepy, that doesn't mean that he's an enemy," Naruto added. "Because it's the heart that matters. Judging people by their past actions or families is dangerous. You can lose inestimable friends and allies if you close your heart like that."

The black haired jounin let out a small sound of admiration and Gaara cocked his head, those words seemed familiar. He had already heard them.

"That's what Kaeru-san told me, dattebayo!" Naruto concluded with a bright smile. "So we shouldn't judge Creepy Guy here by his creepiness alone!"

"So now, I'm a creepy guy," the jounin muttered. "Why am I not surprised by that..."

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

When Kaeru finally got home, Shisui almost weeped. Almost.

And if he didn't, it was mostly because he didn't have any energy left to cry in happiness.

"You're home," the Uchiha mumbled as he tightly hugged the Toad's legs. "Finally home... I can finally escape from them... Finally..."

The masked jounin cocked his head and then glanced at the two little boys that were calmly sitting in the living room. They both were reading a book that he couldn't quite see and were also ignoring the two adults. That was a bit surprising when one knew how much they had wanted to see the Toad masked shinobi.

"They are demons," Shisui whispered darkly as he hung his head low. He simply didn't have the energy left to look up at Kaeru's mask. "This kind of stamina is devilish... I really pity their future jounin sensei... They're going to suffer. A lot."

The masked jounin's shoulders shook briefly and Shisui narrowed his eyes.

" _You knew_ ," he said accusingly. "You. Knew. That. This. Would. Happen..."

Kaeru dared to put his finger to his masked lips and to cock his head like a bashful schoolgirl. Shisui could almost hear him laugh nervously.

"Kaeru," the Uchiha said with an eerily calm voice. "I know that you've probably heard this a lot but I'm going to kill you.  _Slowly_."

The Toad raised his hands and began to wave them nervously around him, trying to appease Shisui's murder intent that was slowly suffocating him. But the Uchiha didn't stop moving forward, his eyes turning red and his pupils slowly morphing into his Mangekyo.

"Now," he whispered always so calmly. "Please stay still so your blood doesn't get everywhere. You wouldn't want dear Naruto's curtains to be covered in blood, right?"

Kaeru nodded swiftly and began to move his arms around even more quickly. But that didn't deter Shisui and he smirked.

However, just as he was about to attack the Toad, he suddenly remembered why the latter had survived all this time. Kaeru had two really annoying and powerful bodyguards...

"What are you doing?" Shisui heard a cold voice ask him and the Uchiha raised an impressed eyebrow.

Who would have thought that the Uzumaki had it in him. He turned his head and glanced at Naruto, slightly surprised by those blue eyes that were slowly turning red. They were assessing him coldly, like a shinobi would have. Also, even if the Kyuubi's power were slowly seeping around him, the boy was totally in control.

Shisui marvelled at this fact and glanced back at Kaeru. What had the Toad been teaching him? Did Naruto have other secret tricks hidden?

"Is this considered like a past action?" Gaara asked as he took a step towards Shisui.

His gourd was back on his back and the sand was rumbling loudly. His eyelids were now dark and his eyes had now a poison green colour. All in all, this didn't look good for the Uchiha.

"No," Naruto answered calmly. Too calmly for the normally hyperactive kid. "This is a present action."

"Then we can judge him," the redhead cocked his head and his lips stretched into a crazy grin.

"Yeah," Naruto's eyes flashed red.

Kaeru sighed heavily and suddenly jumped. He was then behind the two kids and swiftly hit the back of their heads with the book that they had been previously reading. Naruto complained loudly and rubbed his aching head while Gaara whipped his head and glared at the masked jounin.

"Why," he said tersely.

Kaeru shrugged and walked into the living room before he sat on one of the chairs and took his notebook that had been on the table. He swiftly wrote something and turned the notebook so everyone else could read it.

「You were being stupid. Stupid kids get a correction. That's it.」

"I don't see why," Gaara said after a little while (probably the time to decipher Kaeru's chicken handwriting). "He was threatening you. We were protecting you. It wasn't stupid."

"Yeah, what he said!" Naruto added fierily.

Kaeru shook his head and sighed exaggeratedly.

「You were being stupid because you couldn't see that he was kidding around. Shisui won't kill me. Not when I'm part of his team and he has orders to follow each and every of my commands.」

Naruto watched with a puzzled face the Uchiha and then Kaeru before he suddenly beamed at his first friend.

"Really?" He chirped happily. "That's so awesome! You're so cool, Kaeru-san, 'ttebayo!"

Gaara furrowed his (inexistent) eyebrows and his eyes darkened slightly.

"I don't understand," the redhead said softly. "Why would a friend want to kill another friend? Doesn't friends value each other's lives?"

Shisui widened his eyes and after a little while he walked until he was behind Kaeru. He then put his arm around the masked jounin's throat and leaned until his chin was on the Toad's shoulder.

"Of course they do," he assured with a small smirk. "But that doesn't mean that they can't get on each other's nerves. This idiot annoyed me so I told him. We fight but that's normal. Friends sometimes fight. And when they can overcome their conflict, it makes their friendship even more special. Don't you have this with Sasuke?"

Naruto made a face and reluctantly nodded. He could understand what the Uchiha was saying.

「It's the same with brothers.」Kaeru wrote in his notebook before he showed it to Gaara.「Sometimes, they fight. It doesn't mean that they aren't family.」

The redhead nodded with hesitation and he slightly pursed his lips.

「Just see what happened with Naruto.」 the Toad added. 「You fought him with all you've got and now you're siding with him.」

Gaara acquiesced and made a small smile.

"He's a friend," he said quietly.

To his greatest surprise, the redhead saw the Toad shake his head.

"Hey!" Shisui exclaimed as he hit the masked jounin's head. "That's way too rude!"

「Naruto isn't your friend.」Kaeru wrote with a small huff.「He's your brother.」

"Brother?" Naruto read loudly with eyes shining in wonder. "Really? That sounds so amazing!"

"Brother," Gaara stated and he squinted his eyes.

He could remember his brother, Kankuro, flinching away from him. Naruto wasn't at all like him.

"I already have a brother," the redhead said calmly. Naruto was immediately gloomy and his eyes darted everywhere except at Gaara's place. "Can't he switch places with Naruto?"

"Huh?" Shisui looked intensively at the jinchūriki and blinked.

The brat was actually serious.

"What are you saying?" Naruto puffed his cheeks and elbowed Gaara's side. The redhead didn't flinch and glanced at him with his habitual poker face. "You should be grateful that you already have a brother!"

"Is that so?" Gaara inquired with a tilted head.

"Yeah!" The blond nodded and raised a fist to emphasise his point. "I live alone and I don't have any sibling so I know what it's like to be alone, 'ttebayo! You should appreciate having a brother! Just don't be as mushy as Sasuke-teme is with his brother..."

"You're alone," the redhead stated slowly and he frowned. That wouldn't do.

Gaara had known what it was to be alone. But he still had his family. He could remember that Kankuro and Temari had always been around him, even if they were scared to death of him. (Not that he couldn't understand why, from what Kaeru had told him, he had this little problem of controlling his murdering spree)

But Naruto didn't have a family. He just had Kaeru. And the man wasn't really what someone could call a perfect family (even Gaara could tell).

That really wouldn't do.

"You can have him," Gaara said.

"Eh?" Naruto tilted his head and blinked in surprise. "Who?"

"My brother," the other kid answered with his ever calm voice. "I already have an older sister. So I won't be alone. You can have my brother."

"Really?" the blond widened his eyes in surprise and jumped to hug the redhead. "That would be so awesome!"

"But you'll still be my friend and brother," Gaara stated even if his eyes conveyed his doubt.

"Of course!" Naruto agreed cheerily. "We'll always be brothers, dattebayo!"

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"Did we just assist to a slave trade?" Shisui mumbled as he blinked owlishly.

Kaeru snorted and scribbled something in his notebook.

「Just be grateful that it's not about you.」

"Right," the Uchiha commented. "But still... Poor boy. Whoever he is, he didn't deserve that."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I don't have a beta so if you see any error in this chapter, just tell me. I don't bite and I'm actually really happy when I get to correct those errors. (Am I a masochist or what?)
> 
> P.S.: Next chapter: Drizzle.


	8. Drizzle: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Truth to be told, I don't feel happy with this chapter. It feels slow, the pace is slower than a snail and it's pure torture to write it when I know what kind of things will follow in the next chapter. Because there are so many things that I need to put before we can even go to the Kiri part of this story... It's so slow so please, bear with it. I swear that the next chapters will have a lot of action. And cuteness. Never forget the cuteness, we have to enjoy it when they are still children.
> 
> Also, I finally saw 'Road to ninja' and the beginning was so much similar to what I thought when I began writing this story that... yeah, I'm totally going to add a Road to ninja arc in this story. But that will be in a long time. So... Yeah. In a long time.
> 
> And did you read the latest scan? I think that I gurgled in happiness and sadness (yes, both) when I saw Gaara's dream. It's just so... Excuse me while I'll get back on mushing over Gaara's cuteness.
> 
> What else? I had to cut the chapter in... Three parts, I think? Because I don't really like chapters that go over the 7,000 words count. So the next part will be... Probably soon.
> 
> Until then, please enjoy this sorry excuse of a chapter.

 

 

Itachi furrowed his eyebrows and he stretched his arm, palm up while he observed the kunoichi take out a syringe. The woman double checked for any air bubble in the syringe before she turned her brown eyes to the Uchiha and smiled wryly at him.

"Well, well, pretty boy," she said as she put the tourniquet on the stretched arm. "Seems like you've finally understood your place."

Itachi hissed softly through his gritted teeth and watched silently the veins in his elbows fatten up. The kunoichi had tightened the tourniquet a little bit too much and he already couldn't feel the tip of his fingers. She seemed to notice that because she gave him a smug smile before she pushed the end of the syringe in a vein. The Uchiha didn't flinch and he observed his blood flow slowly through the canal of the syringe.

"There is it," Tsunade of the Sannin commented as she watched attentively the blood. Her lips were pale and thin and she was slightly sweating.

"Are you going to faint?" Itachi asked with an even voice.

Tsunade scoffed and she shook her head weakly.

"No," she said sternly. She straightened her back and took a deep breath. "This will pass. Don't worry about it." Then, probably because she wanted to change the topic, she added, "I almost found the cure so you'll soon be released. Heard that the old man had a mission for you..."

"Yes," Itachi nodded and his eyes narrowed. "I need to be discharged on Friday."

"You'll be," Tsunade shrugged and she began to disinfect her tools.

The Uchiha nodded and he stood up, his black kimono rustling softly as he walked to the door.

"You're still in convalescence, pretty boy," the Sannin suddenly said while Itachi opened swiftly the door. "Don't act recklessly."

The dark haired man closed the door behind him.

Tsunade sighed heavily and began to rub her shoulders as she cleaned her office. She ignored the sound of a window opening and carefully put the vial of Itachi's blood in a container. It was going to be sent to be analysed by Shizune but that didn't mean that the blond wouldn't be involved with it. She rubbed her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand and sighed again.

"What are you doing here?" she asked calmly.

The window closed with a small sound and she turned her head to give a stern look at the intruder. The Toad masked shinobi shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.

"Stop playing the mute, I'm still mad at you for the Yamanaka," Tsunade growled as she tightened her hand on her desk. The metal creaked loudly in agony and the two ninja ignored it.

Kaeru waved his hands, trying to dismiss the matter and he pointed his thumb at his throat before shrugging.

"So you don't want to talk," Tsunade frowned and she pursed her lips. "I should have planned that..."

She muttered something under her breath and began to look for something in her desk drawer. But because she had previously made two handprints dents on her desk, the drawer didn't open and she had to definitely broke her poor desk to finally get to open the drawer. She took the two eye checking tools and gave them to the masked jounin.

"That one is for 'yes' and that one for 'no'," she curtly explained and Kaeru beamed at her.

Well, his face was still covered by his porcelain mask but Tsunade knew him enough to know that he was smiling widely at her. She clicked her tongue and sat back on her chair, her eyebrows furrowing as she thought on her next question.

"Are you here for the pretty boy?"

The jounin cocked his head and shrugged.

"I mean Uchiha Itachi," Tsunade clarified with a small groan.

Why was the Toad so dense? It made everything harder.

(Yes)

Kaeru raised the tool and nodded quickly his head. Tsunade snorted softly and leaned her chin on her hand.

"Then," she drawled slowly. "Is it related with his incoming mission?"

(Yes)

The Sannin narrowed her eyes and she observed how the jounin has suddenly straightened his back and wasn't moving around nervously like before. So they were finally getting to the juicy part. She smiled in an almost feral way and the Toad merely waited without moving an inch.

"Are you here to know his results?"

(No)

Tsunade pouted and glanced briefly at the vials of Itachi's blood before she took a deep breath.

"Do you want me to do something concerning pretty boy?"

This time, her voice was softer and the jounin had to probably strain his ears to hear her. The man seemed to take his time to think over his answer and finally raised one of the tools

(Yes)

"What do you want me to do?" Tsunade asked with a stern voice. Her brown eyes glared at the masked jounin and they both knew that he wouldn't get out of this topic with the tools.

Kaeru sighed heavily even if he didn't make any sound at all and he walked calmly towards Tsunade. Once he was at mere inches from her seat, he put the two tools on her lap and took two steps back. Then, he tilted his head, making his neck creak loudly, while he swiftly nicked his finger on one of his kunai. Tsunade let out a small gasp when her eyes noticed the small trickle of blood on the shinobi's hand and she huffed, her eyes narrowing as Kaeru touched his seal on his exposed neck.

They both took a deep breath when the seal stopped glowing and the kunoichi sneered slightly when her senses perceived the jounin's chakra flare up a bit.

"Seems like it's getting tough to keep it under control," she commented with a mocking smirk. "I wonder when you're going to snap..."

"Like you're the one to talk," Kaeru retorted acidly. He crossed his arms on his chest and huffed loudly while he stomped his foot. "You even forced me to talk when I wanted to keep this discussion the more discrete possible! What is it, granny? You're getting so old that you couldn't see those things?"

Tsunade frowned and gritted her teeth. Her hands tightened into fists on her sides and she heard distinctively the handles of her chair creak under the pressure.

"Stop it," she barked angrily and the jounin merely huffed at her. "Now tell me what's your business with the Uchiha."

"Fine!" Kaeru retorted and Tsunade could perfectly picture him rolling his eyes. "I want you to tell the Hokage that he won't make it to Friday."

The Sannin blinked, her mind processing quickly every information that had been implied in the Toad's short explanation and she frowned once she got her result.

"Why do you wish to put the Uchiha out of that mission?" she asked with a puzzled face.

The masked jounin looked down and Tsunade looked at him in silence. She could see from his posture that he wasn't really happy to reveal his plan even if she was one of the rare person that really knew him.

"Because," Kaeru finally answered as his red eyes met her brown and confused ones. "If he goes there, it will end really badly."

Tsunade pursed her lips and glanced another time at the vials.

"I won't lie to the Hokage," she drawled and she stopped briefly, her face darkening. "But I'll tell him that Uchiha Itachi's health still isn't assured. That is the truth after all..."

"That will be more than enough," the Toad said before he vanished in a whirlpool of green leaves.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"Hey, isn't that the Toad?" Asuma commented as he lightened a cigarette.

Kakashi put one elbow on the street counter of the bar and leaned his cheek on his hand. He then noticed the now familiar sight of the masked jounin jumping swiftly on the roofs of Konoha. The Toad wasn't being pursued by ANBU shinobi for once so Kakashi felt a little bit of curiosity prickle him as he watched the masked man disappear.

"He seemed pressed," Kurenai stated calmly while she took another seep of her green tea.

Kakashi grunted softly and narrowed his eye. Something was going on.

He swiftly stood up, putting ryos on the counter to pay for his drink and jumped on the bar rooftop. He looked sharply around him, noticing how the Toad was now almost invisible and heading toward the Hokage's tower before turning his head to where the masked jounin had came from. His eye narrowed even more when he saw the hospital.

What was going on with Kaeru?

Was it something concerning Uzumaki Naruto?

Kakashi closed his eyes and took a sharp breath. From what he had heard around, the masked jounin was always doing something dangerous and pulling his sensei's son within. Like with the destruction of the training ground four. From what the ANBU had seen there, there was a big fight there. A fight including Bijuu and a lot of high levelled ninjutsu. And the only Konoha shinobi who had seen everything when it happened was...

Kakashi opened his eyes abruptly and bit his thumb before calling for his ninkens.

He had an Uchiha to track down.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Utatane Koharu folded calmly her hands on her lap and watched sternly her old friend behind his heavy mahogany desk. Sitting next to her, Mitokado Homura's lips tightened into a stern line and the two councillors stayed still under the Hokage's steely eyes.

"Koharu, Homura," Sarutobi said calmly as he put down his kiseru on his desk.

The two other old shinobi glanced briefly at the pipe and their eyes went back to their leader's face. They both knew that it was a clear sign that whatever followed was going to be a serious discussion.

"There have been alarming signs recently," the Hokage added. His heavy lidded eyes noticed Koharu's lips twitch and he narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

It wasn't Koharu who answered and Sarutobi held the sigh when he noticed Homura opening his mouth.

"The council is growing restless," Homura stated quietly while his face conveyed another message. His eyes were as steely as Hiruzen's and his face was stern. "You have been sending less and less shinobi on mission, the Kazekage is residing in Konoha and there is still the issue with the Uchiha that has been left unsettled..."

"Because there wasn't any issue to begin with," the Hokage quickly cut his councillor and frowned heavily. "Wasn't Danzō enough of an example?"

Koharu pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes as her hands tightened into fists on her lap.

"So the rumours were true," she commented grimly. "The Toad is indeed your tool... Sarutobi, when did you..."

"Kaeru isn't my tool," Hiruzen shook his head and sighed another time. "I never ordered him to take Danzō down. He's the one who decided to do it in such a... visible way. There isn't any issue with the Uchiha, I've made sure of that."

"Really?" Homura insisted as his eyebrows were raised in incredulity. "The population doesn't think the same, Sarutobi. And there have been talks about the Uchiha's head trying to do a coup d'état..."

"There won't be a coup d'état," the Hokage was slowly getting angry at his councillors' pigheadedness. "I won't let Konoha fall into anarchy when there is a possible war coming."

Koharu gasped softly and Homura narrowed his eyes.

"A war," the two councillors repeated with a blank voice. "With who? Iwa?"

"Kiri," Hiruzen corrected with a weary sigh. "Suna will back us down."

"Suna, you say," Koharu muttered pensively while she bit her lips. "It won't be enough..."

"That's why it's a  _possible_  war," the Hokage insisted on the possible part and slowly raised his right hand to point his thumb behind him. "That's why I'm going to send him there."

Koharu and Homura frowned and they looked at the broken window and at the masked jounin who had just broken in through it.

"You say that he isn't your tool yet you're going to send him?" Homura asked while his frown deepened as he watched the Frog walk without caring about them to an empty chair and dropping gracelessly on it. "Are you sure about that, Sarutobi?"

"He won't be the only one shinobi in that mission," Hiruzen smirked slightly while the masked jounin bobbed his head vividly. "Suna and Konoha will send two men too."

"Are thinking of sending the Uchiha's head to make sure that the conflict is killed before it can degenerate?" Koharu asked as she tilted her head, her eyes assessing calmly the Toad.

"I'll send an Uchiha," the Hokage nodded.

"Is that so," Homura commented while the woman acquiesced in approbation. "Who?"

"Uchiha Itachi," Hiruzen stated before he suddenly stopped as he had been surprised by Kaeru's sudden moves.

The masked jounin was now waving his arms abruptly and making a cross with them, signalling how he wasn't agreeing with that choice.

"Seems like you don't agree with him," Koharu stated dryly.

Kaeru huffed silently and stomped his foot before pointing his thumb at the door and then at the two councillors.

"How rude," Homura sneered at the masked jounin and Hiruzen rolled his eyes.

He could already see what would follow. And because he sure as hell didn't want to see his two councillors be dealt with like Danzō had been, he cleared loudly his throat and laced his fingers on the desk.

"Homura, Koharu, you're dismissed, we'll continue this discussion tomorrow," he said sternly, exuding all the authority that he possessed over them.

His two old friends pursed their lips and left the room without a word. It was kind of cold but Hiruzen had been expecting it so he just sighed and glared weakly at the culprit.

"Why do you have to always like that with them?" he asked and was immediately answered with a careless shrug.

"Dunno," Kaeru told him and Sarutobi was surprised.

Naruto hadn't even had to stop his seal, that meant that he had been talking recently. But with who? Jiraya? Tsunade? Or was it the young Uchiha, Kagami's son?

"I just can't like them," the masked jounin added with another shrug. "They always get in the way. Always." He cupped his chin and tilted his head pensively. "Maybe I'd have been better if I just killed them..."

"No more useless killing," Hiruzen told him sternly and Kaeru nodded tersely his head.

"You're right," the latter said with a small laugh. "They will just be some annoying bugs. Nothing that we can't deal with!"

"We?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow inquisitively and observed how the jounin shrugged and crossed his legs.

"Shrimp-me and myself, dattebayo!" Kaeru tilted his head and the Hokage remembered vividly how the boy's father always did the same before he smiled brightly at him while rubbing his neck.

Sarutobi grunted softly and he shook his head. He didn't want to remember those times.

"Uchiha Itachi," he said tersely to remind himself that they needed to talk about something important. "Why are you against sending him on that mission?"

"He'll flunk it," Kaeru stated plainly. "And he isn't the Uchiha needed for that kind of mission. Don't you remember it, old man? You sent an Uchiha to stop a whole family from doing a coup d'état... And he's still doing it right now, isn't that right?"

Hiruzen blanched and gritted his teeth. He swiftly made the correct hand signs and sighed in relief once the room was soundproofed.

"You weren't supposed to know that," he stated grimly. "How much do you know, Naruto? Tell me the truth."

The masked man cocked his head and the Hokage noticed how those red eyes, so different from his younger self's blue eyes, sparkled briefly with something that he couldn't quite analyse.

"I know enough to make changes that matter," Naruto answered. His voice didn't shiver and he didn't move as he told him that.

The masked jounin wasn't lying. And that was what frightened the Hokage the most.

Hiruzen closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he clenched his fists. Then, he relaxed his whole body and narrowed his eyes.

"What do you want with Uchiha Shisui."

The Toad cackled.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Uchiha Shisui furrowed slightly his eyebrows and let out a deep sigh.

"Why is it always me?" He complained loudly as he felt someone pull his arm.

"Come on, Shisui-creep!" the Uzumaki brat whined as he tried to pull harder his arm. "We're going to be late, 'ttebayo!"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes and glanced around him. They both were in the outskirts of Konoha and only civilians surrounded them. The kid was wearing his habitual clothes, bright orange trousers and his faded green beanie, and that wasn't helping them mingle in the crowd. Even more when they were accompanied with two foreigners.

"Is it rational to put the civilians here?" the Fourth Kazekage muttered to himself as he eyed critically the houses and rare shops around them. "If there was an invasion, they would be in dire need of help..."

Shisui pushed his aggravation provoked by the Uzumaki's insistent screams and smiled tightly at the Kage.

"Do no worry, Kazekage-sama," he answered coldly and yet politely. "Everything has been planned since the First Hokage's reign."

The older man narrowed his eyes slightly and cocked his head, his eyes trailing after his son while his lips quirked a bit when he saw the latter talking softly with the blond kid.

"Is that so," the Kazekage drawled calmly. "How far is their playground?"

Shisui blinked and turned briefly his head to look at the Uzumaki. Naruto was still hanging on his right arm with a wide smile on his tanned face. The brat was talking with the Suna jinchūriki too.

 _'Two jinchūriki being close friends_ ,' Shisui stated calmly. ' _This could turn really bad if left unsupervised._ '

"My son isn't a danger to Konoha," the Kazekage's voice drawled quietly and the Uchiha was almost startled by the sudden change of topic. The brown haired man was still looking at his son and he tightened his lips sternly. "He likes it here."

Shisui licked his lips nervously and blinked swiftly, his dark eyes taking notice on the stern lines on the Kazekage's forehead as well as the tiny smile on the redhead boy's face. That was quite a confession. Even more when you knew that the Suna jinchūriki was probably going to be the future Kazekage. He was strong enough now and the Uchiha could already see that in the future he'd be a force to recon.

Would that end with an unbreakable bond with Konoha? Or would something happen between the two hidden villages before that could even happen?

"Is that so," Shisui mumbled grimly.

He noticed the two boys run towards the playground where other children were already playing and he scoffed softly. They were just children right now.

"It's no use to stress over the future, I guess," he added under his breath.

The Fourth Kazekage made a small noncommittal sound and the two men walked leisurely to the playground. The Kage's bodyguards moved swiftly in the shadows and Shisui ignored them while he observed with a steady gaze the young Uzumaki prance around the other children.

"Konoha's weather is nice," the Fourth suddenly commented as he sat on a public bench.

The Uchiha blinked and had to take some seconds to process the sight. A Kage sitting idly in a playground. It sure was a strange sight. However, Shisui didn't know if he hated it. The Kazekage hadn't issued death threats to Konoha and had actually acted like a simple ambassador. Not at all what the dark haired ANBU had expected from a Kage.

But then again, Shisui hadn't expected the Kage's son to act so weirdly with Naruto. (They were actually pretty cute in their weird way)

Shisui blinked another time at the strange turn that his thoughts were taking and coughed softly to hide his confusion.

"Yes," he agreed after a little while. He shuffled a little bit awkwardly and glanced at the empty spot on the public bench and at the children. "Today is specially nice, I dare say..."

The Kazekage didn't comment on his answer and Shisui kept standing, his back straight as he looked right ahead at the two jinchūriki. The two men tensed when they felt a chakra pulse come straight to them and the bodyguards swiftly jumped to guard the Kage while Shisui narrowed slightly his eyes. He knew that chakra after all.

But still... what did Hatake Kakashi want from him? Or did he want to have a chat with the Kazekage? Shisui couldn't really see how the normally discreet ANBU would want to abruptly talk to a Kage.

It was strange.

Nonetheless, nothing could really frazzle Shisui anymore that day. He had taken a stroll with the Kazekage, babysat two dangerous jinchūriki and now Sharingan no Kakashi, a man with whom he had never had talks that exceeded the three words count, was approaching him.

What a strange day indeed.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Naruto narrowed an eye and widened the other as he tried his best to do his most intimidating scowl to the lazy idiot. The other merely yawned loudly at his attempt at intimidation and the blond huffed angrily.

"What did you say?" he growled threateningly.

The brown haired pineapple snorted softly and shook his head slowly.

"It's a drag to repeat that so I won't do it," he drawled with his annoyingly lazy voice.

Naruto almost saw red and took a sharp breath while he felt Gaara move behind him. The blond glanced behind him and sent a tight smile to the redhead, noticing how his green eyes were narrowed ominously and his lips pursed into a scowl. It was actually pretty scary but Naruto didn't want to admit it so he widened his smile and opened wide his eyes. He cocked his head and looked at the ball in Ino's hand.

The little girl was still holding it against her chest and was pouting with a bored scowl. She didn't want to be stuck with boys but there she was, stuck in the middle of an incoming fight. There was also the Akimichi heir, Chōji, as well as two Hyuuga, the annoying Kiba and Sasuke who had probably been forced to leave his room.

Naruto looked around him to check something and as he had expected, he sensed briefly the teme's older brother's smell lingering in the playground.

So that made two babysitter for the teme if Shisui-creep was included. Naruto glanced at the creep and frowned when he noticed that the strange Uchiha, Kaeru-san's comrade, was standing next to Gaara's father and talking with a grim face with someone wearing the Konoha nin garb. Naruto blinked, his blue eyes darkening pensively as he observed the man talking with Shisui-creep, he knew him. He had seen that white hair somewhere else before.

Gaara moved again behind him until he was standing right next to him and Naruto blinked, his attention going back to the matter in hand.

"Why should we even play soccer?" he exclaimed with a childish pout (not that he was going to admit it).

"Because," Shikamaru rolled his eyes in aggravation and sighed heavily like an old man would have done. "I want to be a goaler. And with him," he pointed his finger at Gaara, "we're eleven. One team would have more players than the other. He can always play referee."

Naruto glanced at Gaara's face and scowled, gritting his teeth as he saw how his friend (his brother, Kaeru-san had said) was slightly frowning and how his jade eyes were looking down. Gaara had wanted to play, even if he hadn't showed it really well.

"I won't permit that, dattebayo!" he said loudly while pointing his thumb at his chest. "I'll just find another player, that way everything will be fine, right?"

Brown pineapple rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Be my guest," he muttered as he kicked a rock with his foot. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and his expression changed while he smirked slightly at the blond. "You have five minutes to find another player."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and huffed loudly before he scouted the playground quickly. As he had expected, there wasn't other children playing there. So the only choice left was...

He turned his head to the public bench and sighed heavily when he saw that Gaara's father was still sitting there. However, Shisui-creep had vanished from his spot. As did the white haired man from before. Maybe they had been called for an impromptu mission.

Naruto fronded and he looked at Gaara. The redhead's steady gaze met his questioning eyes and he cocked his head.

"What is it?" Gaara asked with his calm voice.

"Does your father know about soccer?" Naruto retorted with a nervous grin.

Gaara shrugged and the blond laughed feebly.

"Well," he drawled nervously as he shrugged and began to walk towards the Kazekage. "Here goes nothing..."

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Shimura Danzō leaned back against the shoji door and closed his eyes while he appreciated silently the soft wind ruffling through his black hair. He ignored the bell chime above his head as well as the soft steps in the household. Somewhere in the pond in front of him, a koi fish jumped to catch a dragonfly and the old man sighed heavily.

"What do you want," he said with a clear voice. His eyes were still closed and he felt the familiar ache of his lost arm come back to haunt him. The soft steps in the household scurried to the shoji door and Danzō scowled.

"Don't come out," he ordered coldly. "Leave us alone."

"Understood, Danzō-sama," the servant answered politely before going back to his occupations.

His visitor didn't move from his spot and Danzō creaked open an eye. The sun was hitting him right in the face and he had to raise a hand to cast a shadow over his face to finally see the masked jounin standing upside down in his veranda.

"What do you want, Frog," Danzō spat and he frowned harshly when he saw the damned jounin cock his head.

He was taunting him.

"Why aren't you talking like last time," he scowled while the Frog didn't move an inch from the ceiling. "Are you here to see my downfall?"

"I don't see any downfall."

The Frog's voice was as clear as that day. Danzō felt a shiver creep on his back and he expertly concealed it. He then noticed the jounin's red eyes gleaming through the holes of his white mask with red painting. So this wasn't a simple visit.

"I know your plans, Danzō," the Frog told him with his cheery and yet uncaring voice. It was almost inhuman how careless he could sound, sometimes it was almost as if he was talking about the nice weather they were having recently.

Danzō scowled even more when he remembered how cheerily the masked jounin had told him that he'd rip off his arm before destroying his plan.

"So this is pretty much a little reminder," the Frog added with a small shrug. "If you touch an Uchiha, approach one or even just think of messing with them, I won't be happy."

"So this is a threat," Danzō drawled calmly. "Did Sarutobi send you to do this?"

"Eh?" the jounin cocked his head and snickered slightly. "Still thinking that the old man sent me? Did the old age finally got to you?"

The old hawk of war frowned and he tried to stand up but had to stop. A kunai was now vibrating at mere inches from his face, threw carelessly by the masked jounin before Danzō had even had the time to notice it.

"Indeed," he chuckled grimly. "I'm getting old."

"Everyone is getting old," the Frog shrugged from his spot on the ceiling while twirling a kunai in his hand. "And we need fresh blood, Root, the Uchiha, the Hokage..."

"Is that your goal?" Danzō asked under his breath. His eyes didn't leave the Frog's mask and he scowled when he saw those red eyes narrow slightly with amusement.

"My goal, you say," the other drawled with a small hum. "I guess that we share the same one. Protect Konoha at whatever cost."

" _We share the same goal,_ " Danzō repeated with a small huff of incredulity. "You're contradicting yourself. What you said that day..."

"Am I really?" the Frog tilted his head while he put innocently a finger on his covered chin. "My Konoha is different than yours, Danzō."

The older man closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Indeed," he reluctantly agreed. "Didn't you say it? You fight for your future, I do it for another."

"It isn't my future," the Frog corrected him with a stern voice. "It's Naruto's and Konoha youth's future. Let me deal with the Uchiha. It won't end in a massacre with me."

"I'll see it for myself," Danzō muttered.

"Great!" the masked jounin cheered loudly. "If you hadn't agreed, I'd have had to kill you, you know? You just saved me from explaining that to the old man!"

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"I heard that Naruto did something quite unimaginable today," Hiruzen smirked and he watched the other Kage sip his cup of tea quietly.

"It seems that rumours travel swiftly here," the Fourth commented as he put down his cup on the Hokage's desk.

Hiruzen tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. His smirk widened as he observed the dire state of the Kazekage's clothes and he chuckled softly.

"It seems also that even the Kazekage can't resist to Naruto's puppy eyes," he added and the redhead frowned slightly.

"They can be a weapon to recon when my son does it with him," the Kazekage drawled before he took another sip of his tea. "Where is Kaeru?"

"Him?" Hiruzen sighed softly and cupped his chin pensively. "He has a lot of things to do before he can leaves the village."

"I see," the other nodded softly and glanced at his cup of tea. He could see a leave floating vertically. "My shinobi is already in Konoha. We could send them tomorrow at dawn."

"We could, indeed," the Hokage acquiesced and sighed once again. "If Kaeru finishes his business today, they could set off at dawn."

The Kazekage tilted his head and observed the other Kage's lax composure before he took a deep breath and continued seeping his tea.

"But who would have pegged you as such a fearsome goalie," Hiruzen commented lightly.

"My son was watching," the Kazekage deadpanned. "I couldn't shame Suna either."

"Eh," the Hokage chuckled. "Wouldn't that be nice if we could just solve our conflicts like that?"

"You're getting old, Hokage," the Fourth replied after a long silence.

"Indeed," Hiruzen agreed with a chuckle. "I guess that it's time to put some fresh blood in here..."

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Sasuke grinned as he watched the dobe leave the playground with the strange redhead. They had, the three of them, played until the night had fallen with the other children and, once the other had left to eat supper, he had stayed with the two boys. Mostly because Sasuke had promised to his older brother that he'd be nice with his new friend.

So here he was, saying goodbye to the dobe (who was covered in dirt after a spectacular failed kick to win against the redhead's father) and the redhead (who was spotless clean. He wasn't even sweating and his hair wasn't ruffled. Sasuke kind of wanted to ask him how he did that).

The young Uchiha blinked and glanced at the sky, noticing that the moon was already rising and that the stars were twinkling weakly.

"Sasuke."

The young boy smiled widely when he heard his older brother's voice and he jumped in his arms with a small shout of happiness.

"Did you know, Itachi?" he babbled happily. "We played with Gaara's father! And he used those really powerful moves to block the ball! And then, Shikamaru wasn't happy because that was clearly against the rules! And then, Gaara, the redhead, used his own strange moves and countered his father! It was really awesome!"

Itachi chuckled softly and he ruffled Sasuke's hair. The little boy blinked before grinning at the teen.

"So you had a lot of fun, Sasuke," he commented lightly.

"Yes!" Sasuke grinned cheerily and they began to walk home.

Itachi told him about his day. He hadn't gone in a mission ("I can't really go now," the teen had whispered while rubbing his neck) and had went to check something at the hospital ("they have really big needles, Sasuke. Did you know?" he smirked slightly as he told him that, revelling in Sasuke's shudders).

"What about you, Sasuke?" Itachi asked him once he finished telling him his day off. "Were you happy to get out?"

Sasuke frowned slightly and looked at his feet. He noticed that they were covered in dirt and kicked lightly a small pebble, watching it fly until it disappeared in the night.

"Kind of," he admitted with a small voice. "When I saw Naruto, I got really nervous."

"I won't let that man approach you," Itachi told him firmly. "So don't worry about it and play to your heart content."

Sasuke smiled weakly and nodded softly.

"Hn," he said.

Itachi ruffles his hair.

When they got home, his older brother told him to go take a bath while he talked with their father. Sasuke nodded and silently went in his room to fetch clean clothes. When he came back in the central corridor to go to the bathroom, he heard a faint nose coming from the closed door of the living room and the young boy frowned. He wasn't supposed to be eavesdropping. But he was a future ninja and what did ninja do if not eavesdropping?

He quickly made his mind and stuck his ear against the door, narrowing his eyes when he recognised his father's angry voice as well as Itachi's stressed tone.

"We can't keep stalling," Father was saying. "They are still looking down on us."

"Father," Itachi's voice was tired. Was it a frequent argument between them? Sasuke frowned, he didn't like thinking that. His family was supposed to be happy. Smiling. "There are more and more people taking our side since Danzō stepped down. Even the Hokage is listening to us."

"It isn't enough, Itachi," Father sighed and Sasuke felt tears prickle in his eyes.

His father sounded so tired, like he wasn't fighting since forever for a lost cause and just wanted to lay down.

"The family council," Father added. "They want more."

Sasuke frowned, he could remember the incessant goings and comings in their house. His mother's frazzled face and his father's increasing wrinkles. So something had been going just under his nose and he hadn't noticed it. His stomach churned and he whined softly. He felt sick.

"..." Itachi took a sharp breath. "I'm going to have an important mission. Something that could change the tide. The Uchiha will come out of this stronger, father."

"I hope so, Itachi," Father sighed. "Now, please, go see if your brother is alright. I think that I heard him cry."

Sasuke blinked in horror and he looked around him, his eyes turning to the red Sharingan while he tried to find a good hiding place. He heard the sliding door open and held his breath while he shut close his eyes. Strangely, Sasuke felt two warm hands hold his arms and pull him toward the ceiling before he felt the world swirl around him. One of the warm hands slithered to his mouth and covered it just in time as he had been about to scream in surprise and Sasuke creaked his eyes open.

He almost screeched in horror when he saw who was holding him. Almost because he was still gagged.

The Toad masked jounin tilted his head ("Look, Sasuke!" Naruto had said before. "Kaeru-san's smiling!") and swiftly put his free hand on his masked lips on the universal sign of shushing him. Sasuke blinked softly to signal his agreement and almost sighed in relief when he felt the pressure of the Toad's hand relax against his lips. They both watched carefully Itachi exit the living room and take the way to the bathroom. Once the teenager turned at the corner and disappeared from their eyes, they both let out a relieved sigh and Kaeru swiftly jumped in the stairs, avoiding obviously to look at the living room door.

Sasuke realised then that he was alone with the source of his recurrent nightmares. The Toad was now walking up the stairs with bouncy and yet silent steps. The Uchiha glanced at the living room and then at the corner where he had last seen Itachi. He could call for help. They could stop the masked jounin from doing whatever he was planning on doing.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and took a sharp breath. He was an Uchiha, Itachi's younger brother and he sure as hell wasn't going to chicken down.

("You're a chicken!" Naruto had shouted loudly at him before)

' _I'm not_ ,' he scowled and swiftly followed the Toad until they both ended in the young Uchiha's room. The door closed with a small creak and Sasuke shuddered slightly.

The Toad had red eyes. He had forgotten about that. Red and intimidating eyes with strange crossed pupils. Almost like toad pupils.

"Good evening, Sasuke," the Toad said calmly.

Sasuke gulped loudly. His throat felt scratchy. So dry that he felt like going sick. Also, those red eyes were tormenting him.

"I'll leave the village really soon, you know," the jounin added lightly. His voice wasn't at all like that time in the sewers. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, the Toad was playing a game with him and he didn't like that. "I figured that I should apologise before leaving though."

"That... time in the sewers," the black haired boy began while he fumbled to use the correct wording. "Why did you act like that? Why did you... threaten me?"

The Toad suddenly sat on Sasuke's bed and the boy made a face. Now, he's going to have to change the bedding because he's pretty sure that the jounin didn't wash regularly.

"Ah... That," the adult breathed out before chuckling nervously. "Would you believe me if I told you that I fucked up?"

"No," Sasuke deadpanned. "I don't."

"I though so," the Toad chuckled and Sasuke knew that he was grinning abashedly under his mask. He also knew that, instinctively, it was a grin like the ones that Naruto always did whenever someone pointed one of his errors. "It's just..." Now, it's the jounin's turn to fumble around for his words. "You look so much like an old friend of mine. I can't keep my calm around you, Sasuke."

"That's pretty bad for a jounin," the boy stated plainly. "You must always keep a clear mind."

"I know," Kaeru, the masked jounin, his living nightmare and so much more chuckled softly. "That's why I'm not a normal jounin..."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed wholeheartedly to that statement.

The masked shinobi tilts his head and the Uchiha kind of tries to not look at him insistingly.

("Look, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted with excitation. "Kaeru-san is smiling!")

' _Shut it, dobe_ ,' Sasuke thought while he scratched nervously his cheek. ' _I can see it..._ '

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, by the next chapter, we will finally find out about Sakura's whereabouts more Naruto-Gaara-Kaeru bonding time and the Shisui-Kakashi discussion. Also, I really, really, REALLY need a name for the Kazekage. Please, help me. Seriously, help.


	9. Drizzle Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shisui did not sign up for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back. Missed me? (Please, lie and say yes)  
> Also, we're back to the second part of Drizzle. And also the end of such a boring arc. I'm so relieved, you can't even imagine.

 

 

Itachi softly put down his brush and leaned back on his chair to observe his work. His delicate eyebrows furrowed when he noticed that a kanji had been blurred and he pursed his lips. He needed to redo everything now.

The nagging memory of his argument with his father danced in his mind and he pushed it away. He didn't need to worry about that. Not when he had been given an extremely important mission by the Hokage to save Konoha from an impending war.

_'But what if you end like the White Fang?'_

The faint whisper of his worries disturbed him just as he had stretched his hand to take his brush and the young heir closed his eyes. He could feel a faint burning sensation in his lungs but ignored it. Tsunade the Sannin had told him that he would be able to go on missions.

He wouldn't make this important mission end badly.  
Uchiha Itachi never failed.

Itachi opened his eyes, dark coal glistening under the candlelight, and he got back to his writing practice.

His brush moved effortlessly, tracing without ever stopping the unending kanjis while he softly calmed himself. His father's worried face stopped haunting him, Shisui's tired eyes and hidden schedule stopped worrying him, Sasuke's innocent and teary eyes stopped hurting him.  
The stress marks on his face dwindled a bit and Itachi let out a soft breath just before he finished his sentence.

The brush rolled out of his grasp and the Uchiha heir cracked his fingers before he decided to stand up. His long hair wasn't tied and freely fell on his shoulders, annoying him a bit as he didn't appreciate whenever a strand fell over his eyes.

But Itachi quickly forgot about that when he felt the familiar and sometimes hated chakra in his little brother's bedroom.

His lips thinned, his face whitened and, as his stress marks increased, his eyes bled into the red Sharingan.

No matter what were his worries, Sasuke always came first. And Itachi was sure as hell that he would never leave his adored little brother alone with the Toad.

The masked jounin had proved himself untrustworthy with Sasuke and Itachi would never again make that error.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Sasuke munched on his lips nervously and glanced at the shinobi sitting on his bed. Then, he looked at the closed door of his bedroom, his ears hearing the faint sound of soft steps approaching.

This was so not what he had planned that day when he had told the dobe that he would relax home after the soccer game.

Sasuke refrained from whining pitifully when he recognized his brother's footsteps. He looked insistingly at the masked jounin, who was still sitting on his bed without a care to the world when it was clearly a bad idea to do it under the same roof as the man who wanted to kill him. Clearly, sometimes Sasuke wondered if the Toad was actually sane. Then he remembered that the man wasn't. He was downright crazy and the dobe was beginning to pick up that craziness too.

And now, Sasuke was the one who was going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or rather, the one who was going to see the chaos that would happen once his brother saw the Toad in his bedroom.

A keen escaped from his parted lips and the youngest Uchiha tightly closed his eyes while he prayed for his salvation. But the only thing he got was a little chuckle and a hand ruffling his hair.

"That's my cue to go," the Toad told him.

Sasuke creaked open an eye and raised a mocking brow. Now he understood it? Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if Kaeru was actually as slow minded as the dobe. And from what he could see now that confirmed his suspicion.

"Don't forget our deal, Sasuke," the masked jounin lightly added with a small wave from his hand.

"I won't," the Uchiha answered. His dark eyes looked at him, unblinkingly and unforgivingly, while the adult chuckled again and left the room in a whirlpool of green leaves.

And just as he did that, Sasuke heard a small knock at his door, soon followed by his brother's voice.

"Sasuke? Is everything alright?"

The youngest Uchiha nervously licked his lips and forced a smile on his face before he abruptly opened the door.

"I am fine, brother," he said. And indeed, he was fine.

"I see," Itachi sighed with a little smile and looked at him fondly.

The oldest Uchiha left him after some words about the dinner that was soon to be served and Sasuke closed his door once he was sure that Itachi was gone. When the door clicked and was closed, he fell on his knees and feebly laughed.

This was the first time that he had hidden something from his brother. And Sasuke didn't know why it had been so easy to him.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Haruno Mebuki frowned and looked at her husband, the latter was reading his newspaper while eating his dinner and they were both enjoying the silence in their house.

The extremely abnormal silence.

While Mebuki knew that having a child was the same as saying goodbye to their quiet and silent days, she frequently had wished that her baby would sometimes stop crying and screeching whenever she was left alone. But now that her child was older and more independent, Mebuki was actually regretting her old wish.

Sakura was now too independent and silent for her own good.

Even now, she was reading a heavy and dusty scroll while eating without even protesting her dinner. She even ate her vegetables in silent and without blinking.

Mebuki was actually considering going to Tsunade the Sannin just to make sure that she didn't have a dire and terminal illness. But whenever she was about to go out and actually contact the Sannin, her husband always stopped her.

"She's just a kid," he always said with a chuckle. "Now that she's finally interested in her studies, why would we stop her? Let her do as she pleases and enjoy it. She won't always be so fixed in her studies..."

"I know but..." Mebuki nervously gnawed on her lips and glanced at the still reading Sakura.

The little girl was munching on a piece of broccoli while she knitted her brows together, her finger straightening the scroll as she stumbled over a word that she didn't understand.

"Mom?" Sakura called with a pensive tone.

"Yes, honey?" Mebuki immediately answered while she looked insistingly at her husband.

"What does  _'skinned_   _alive'_  mean?" the young girl asked as her green eyes finally left the scroll to glance at her mother.

The latter opened her mouth before she quickly shut it.

"Ask your father," she grumbled as she stood up and left the dining room.

Sakura observed her mother as she left the room and her green eyes went back to her scroll.

"Dad?" she said in a small voice.

"Hm?" Haruno Kizashi tilted his head and stopped munching on his steak to swallow. "What is it, little flower?"

Sakura hesitantly looked up to his father and nervously wriggled on her chair.

"Is mom angry because of me?" she whispered as she looked at her almost empty plate.

She furrowed her brows when she noticed that she had ate her vegetables. She had always hated those and yet had eaten them.  
So why would his mother be so angry at her?

"Of course, not!" her father answered her with a booming laugh. "It's just that she's surprised by how fast you're growing up! Soon you'll outshine us all, little flower!"

Sakura pursed her lips into a tiny grimace as she heard the affective nickname and she scowled at Kizashi.

"Daaad," she whined softly. "Stop calling me that! I'm eight now!"

"Right," the man laughed happily as he ruffled his daughter's pink hair. "How could I forget that my little girl is now a full fledged adult!"

Sakura almost preened over her father's words and nodded vividly her head.

"That's right," she added while she stood on her chair. "I'm an adult now and I'll soon be a great kunoichi in the same squad than the Toad!"

Kizashi immediately stopped laughing and squinted his eyes, observing his daughter's soft blush and her enamored eyes.

"No," he curtly said.

"What?" Sakura blinked and frowned. "Why not?"

"No daughter of mine will be in the same squad as that hooligan!" were Haruno Kizashi's final words.

Sakura tilted her head and began to roll one of her pink strands around her thumb.

"Hooligan?" she repeated with a frown.

"Haven't you heard?" her father answered her. "That Kaeru fellow is a casanova with no redeeming quality! He's always seen with a different woman at night!"

The little girl pursed her lips and looked at her flat chest and then at her father's disapproving face.

Guess she would have to wait for her body to mature a bit if she wanted to chase her crush.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The sun was slowly dyeing the sky with blotches of bloody red and indigo when the itch came back.

She straightened her back on her tree branch and tried to ignore the persisting and annoying feeling running over her body. It was almost as if a colony of ants was slowly invading her body and she was itching to just take a kunai and scrape her whole flesh.  
But she was on a mission and she couldn't let such a stupid impediment intervene.

She softly rolled on the back of her feet, impulsing enough chakra so they would stick to the bark and waited for her target.

The latter came right on point, their head harshly snapping right and left as they surveyed their surrounding before they raised a hand and began to take off their jounin vest.

She held her breath when a distinctively male chest hidden behind simple bandages appeared in front of her eyes and she ignored the blood pounding in her ears. Being upside-down for hours always made her blood rush to her head but she could deal with it.  
The itch was worsening and she narrowed her eyes when she felt one of her summons slither toward her target.

The man had folded his jounin vest and had put it on a tree stump. He was now stretching his arms in silence, only the faint creaks from his articulations echoing in the silent clearing. A soft wind ruffled the leaves around them and the kunoichi widened her eyes when she distinctly saw strands of fair hair come out of the bandages tied around her target's head. The man was still wearing his mask though and she gritted her teeth.

She needed to see his face to achieve her mission.

She tensed her muscles, her hand slowly leaning towards her weapon pouch and took one of her kunai while she eyed the man stretching under her.  
He was now flexing his legs and elbows, almost as if he was warming up for an imminent fight.

A small flash of worry traversed her. What if he already knew that she was there?

She immediately regulated her breath and forced herself to calm down. Even if he knew that she was there, she would have the advantage if she was the one to strike first.  
And that was why she slowly coiled, ready to attack.

However, just as she was about to lunch herself at her target, the man suddenly raised his head and she paled when she saw that masked face looking directly at her.

She didn't jump and stayed crouched upside-down on that tree branch, the itch concentrating on the back of her neck, until a twig snapped near them.

The masked man vanished just as quickly as she threw her kunai to the place where the twig had snapped. The kunoichi swiftly jumped there and frowned when she saw the white snake that had been pierced and nailed to a tree.

Leaves rustled softly behind her and she ignored it, her eyebrows knitted together as she softly bit on her lips.

Why had a white snake been the one to make that twig snap? It didn't make sense, those reptiles were silent and always avoided making any sound.

She suddenly felt a foreign warmth behind her and tensed when her target's arm soflty pushed her aside and the man went to kneel in front of the nailed snake. He raised one of his gloved hands and dipped his fingers on the animal blood before he began to write on the tree.

「an omen.」

She nervously licked her lips and acquiesced.

"I know," she grumbled while she raised a hand to caress her itching neck. "But is it a good or a bad one?"

The masked man cocked his head and cupped his chin pensively. Then, after some seconds during which he seemed to think over his answer, he raised his arm once again and began to trace something on the tree bark.

She stood there, unmoving. Her eyes were taken by the strange and almost eerie spectacle that was the man with a toad mask which had its mouth covered in a bloody hand-print, before she noticed what her former target had drew on the tree.

It was a music note, except that it was scratched all over by one of her kunai.

The Toad clicked his tongue and silently gave her back her kunai before he vanished in a swirl of tree leaves.

She stood in the middle of the Konoha forest, intrigued by the dead white snake and the bloodied words.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Jiraya was startled awake when his window was suddenly shattered. He spluttered a bit, remaining for his late drunkenness still holding him tight in their metaphorical arms, before he swiftly regained his spirits.

The sight of his pupil's mask covered in drying blood also helped.

"What happened?" the old sage asked as he treaded his fingers through his white hair.

He winced when some of his fingers got caught in knots and grimaced when what was clearly a takoyaki fell from his mane. He really needed to take a shower.

His masked pupil raised his arms and let out a breathless groan before he suddenly fell in Jiraya's bed.  
The latter raised an intrigued brow and leaned over his student before he began to deftly erase some of the seals traced on the boy's flesh. Once all the necessary seals had been erased, Jiraya took off the Toad mask and made a grim face when he saw the flushed cheeks and glazed over red eyes.

"What happened," he repeated but this time with a sterner voice.

Kaeru sighed heavily, his chest rising as he took a deep breath, before he let out a humorless laugh.

"I was with Anko when a snake visited us," he muttered once his laughter stopped.

Jiraya widened his eyes in surprise and slight horror before he recomposed his face into a fake grin.

"So you were scared by an itty-bitty snake, huh?" he gushed while Kaeru frowned at him. "Do you want a hug?"

"No," the blond retorted snappily.

Kaeru took another deep breath and Jiraya observed with serious eyes the seal running through the younger man's throat shimmer a bit before it vanished once again. The Sannin slightly furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips when he noticed a faint glow under the jounin's shirt.

"What do you want then," Jiraya asked in a hushed voice, trying to calm the boy before his seals broke under the strain of his emotions.

"You can't hunt the snake," the blond answered him as his red eyes glinted ominously. "It's too early. Nothing good would come out of it."

Jiraya sighed and slightly leaned his head to the side.

"Then," he whispered as he watched the tired boy's face school itself into his habitual mischievous expression. "What do you want me to do?"

"Keep an eye on shrimp-me," Kaeru grinned at the Sannin.

The Toad jumped on his feet and stretched his arms, making his articulations pop back in place.

"Aaah," the young man exclaimed happily. "That's one thing less to worry about, 'ttebayo! Now, I only have to make seven more errands and I would finally be free, dattebayo!"

"Seven?" the white haired man glanced at the cuckoo-clock over his desk and pursed his lips. "Aren't supposed to go to Kiri at dawn?"

Kaeru nodded happily and took his mask, he made it swirl on his right hand while he frowned pensively.

"Do you think I'll be able to find Kakashi near Shisui?" he pondered without even glancing at his former master. "It would make things easier if they were closer... But if Shisui is at the Uchiha compound, it would actually be great because I also have to chat with Ita-chan..."

Jiraya rolled his eyes and snorted when he realized something that the Toad seemed to have forgotten.

"Brat," he called before a yawn cut him.

"Hn?" Kaeru turned his red eyes to the Sannin while he put back the mask on his face. "What is it, Ero-Sannin?"

"Tick tock," Jiraya merely said as he looked insistingly at his cuckoo-clock.

Kaeru almost killed himself when he jumped without even using chakra out of Jiraya's room.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

Okay, to be honest, when Shisui had been young, younger than Sasuke and the annoying little Naruto were, he had sometimes thought that being famous would be great.

Like, whenever he would go buy new kunai or shuriken (you'll be surprised by how many he had lost in his room or a training ground), the clerk would shake his head and tell him that it was all free. Or his family would stop gushing at the genius heir and notice how awesome he was. Or the girls would fawn whenever he so much as looked in their direction.

See?  
Just puny little things that Shisui hadn't really thought much about.

But now?

Now was totally different. The shinobi was actually ready to begin living with an ANBU mask, forever, if it meant that he wouldn't be noticed so quickly in the middle of a crowd.

Seriously, this was getting ridiculous.  
First, he had chatted with the Kazekage (the bloody Kazekage of all the people) and the man had had the spunk to ask him for tips on dealing with Kaeru. Him! A mere ANBU, and Uchiha too as their name wasn't that appreciated right now in Konoha, being talked as an equal by the Kazekage!

And then, just as they were talking about how nuts Kaeru really was (that man deserved a straitjacket) and were slowly going over how cute the jinchūriki brats were whenever they didn't try to disembowel them with their bare (and clawed) hands, someone else had sought him.

And by someone, Shisui meant Kakashi Hatake.

Yes, Sharingan no Kakashi, the man with his cousin's eye, had come while he was talking with the Kazekage and interrupted them (quite rudely) to ask the Uchiha if he could follow him.

Seriously, Shisui was regretting ever thinking that he wanted to be known in the whole village. Couldn't he ever catch a break? Seems like, ever since he met the Toad masked jounin, the answer was negative.

And thus, here he was. Standing on a rooftop next to the (in)famous Kakashi while the latter was observing with his good eye a murder of crows. The black birds were circling them and the Uchiha briefly watched them glide through the air before they swiftly let themselves fall towards the ground with loud caws.

"They look really agitated tonight," Kakashi idly commented.

Shisui furrowed his brows and, after a last glance to the crows that were hurrying to their nests, softly thrummed his fingers on his weapon pouch. He caressed the thought of using his Sharingan to check if they were alone (Kakashi wasn't against a surprise attack whenever he wanted something) but decided against it. He was still a bit tired from his use of the Magenkyo even if it had been days ago.

"Seems like a storm is brewing," the Uchiha shrugged.

He tensed when he felt a brief wave of killing intent coming from the masked shinobi. Shisui frowned and immediately readied himself. If Kakashi was here because he wanted to settle something then the Uchiha would bolt away before the white haired man had even the time to blink and say "Shisui of the Body Flicker" (that name really was a mouthful).  
No, Shisui wasn't a reckless man who jumped head first to a fight.  
Even if he didn't look like it, he had always been the kind who observed everything before he made his choice. Itachi was the same, except that he was better than him. Like with everything else.

Shisui was startled when he heard Kakashi sigh heavily. The Uchiha glanced at the older shinobi with wary eyes, his Sharingan almost swirling but he quickly stopped it when he noticed how weary and nervous the other man looked.

"You..." Kakashi whispered before he stopped.

The white haired shinobi shifted his weight and one hand patted nervously his vest, probably looking for his favorite book, before he straightened his normally slouched back and put his intense gaze on the Uchiha.

"You are the one who's teamed with the Toad, right?" the Copy Ninja asked while he narrowed his eye.

Shisui sighed and raked his fingers through his raven hair. That information wasn't supposed to be known by anyone else than Kaeru himself and the Hokage.

"Why do everyone think that?" he moaned softly before he remembered with whom he was talking. Even if Kakashi liked to present himself as laid-back man, he was everything but that. The man was scarily easy to rile up whenever something wasn't going his way. Or threatening the people he held dear.

"Sure," Shisui added after a little thought. "You can say it like that. I guess that he trusts me a bit..."

The Uchiha's face darkened when he remembered how the Toad had asked him to watch over the two jinchūriki and how he had thanked him. But did the masked jounin trust him as a teammate?

"Then," Kakashi swiftly cut through the dark haired boy's thoughts and narrowed his eye threateningly at the Uchiha. "What is he planning with Naruto?"

Shisui blinked.  
"Naruto?" he repeated before a small grin stretched on his lips. "Probably to play football with him, the boy seemed like he needed another player and the Toad never refuses him anything."

Kakashi thinned his lips under his mask and cupped his chin pensively. So the Uchiha, the one whose Sharingan was strong enough to cast and notice genjutsu better than the norm, thought that Kaeru only wished the best for the young jinchūriki. Nevertheless, Kakashi couldn't shake off the thought that something evil was brewing in Konoha and that the Toad was behind all of that.

"Is that all you wanted to know?" Shisui's voice shook him away from his thoughts and Kakashi blinked briefly as he came back to his senses.

The Uchiha was standing on the rooftop while he glanced at the darkening sky, his black eyes morphing into the bloodied red of the Sharingan as he watched something that the other shinobi couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Because," the dark haired ANBU added with a dreadful face. "He's coming this way..."

Kakashi widened his eye in surprise and didn't even have the time to step back when a body collided harshly with him in a tempest of swirling red leaves. The white haired shinobi vaguely heard the Uchiha cackle at them before he went back to his feet, pushing away the body.  
The latter swiftly rolled on the tiles, breaking some under his weight, and as silently as he had fallen, got back to his feet. His mask was crooked, showing a bit of a hairless chin and thin pink lips, and the man immediately put it back in place.

Kakashi clicked his tongue, frowning as he branded in his memory the sight of the pale skin and lips. And, the thing that fascinated him the most, what seemed to be faint scars over what little cheek he had gotten to see.

"Wow, almost killed myself there..."

Kakashi felt his blood freeze in his veins when he heard the raspy and breathless voice. Even if he hadn't talked with Shisui a lot, he could still recognize whenever the Uchiha talked.  
And that had surely not been his voice.

It seemed that Shisui had also come to the same conclusion because the latter had taken out his tanto and was already readying himself to launch an attack at the Toad.

"Wait," the latter tilted his head and scratched his hoodie covered head. "I can explain?"

Shisui and Kakashi jumped.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"I'm sorry."

Tsunade shifted her eyes, refusing to look at the broken teenager. The boy was a pure Uchiha, the heir and as such a true wall whenever one wanted to know his feelings, but right now he was just a mere shell of an Uchiha. His eyes were casted at his feet and his fists were tight against his thighs.

"Are you..." the teenager asked in a hushed and broken voice. He stopped talking and took a deep breath. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade glanced at the window, noticing how the sunset was being hidden by darkening clouds, and briefly licked her dry lips before she cleared her throat.

"From our researches," she explained as she put down the teenager's file. "what you have hasn't been analyzed before. While you might feel fine for now, I can truthfully tell you that your health will soon be on the wane. We need to remade all of your chakra paths and that will take time. Tremendous time."

Tsunade faintly closed her eyes and opened them. She refused to hide from the truth, even if it was a broken Uchiha who seemed on the verge of crying.

The Uchiha blinked slowly, his dulled black eyes looking everywhere except at the Sannin and he softly nodded.

"I see," he whispered. "But I can still use my chakra, right?"

Tsunade pursed her lips and folded her arms under her ample bosom. While it was right that the Uchiha could keep using his chakra (and as such, keep doing his missions like the workaholic he was), she knew, instinctively so, that it would end badly for him.  
His sickness, probably caused by generations of inbreeding, had heavily altered his chakra paths. And, while he was one of the strongest Uchiha, he was also the weakest. If he kept using his chakra without ever controlling himself, she wouldn't give him more than ten years to live.

She was ready to lie, to tell him that using his chakra would result on his imminent death, but stopped herself.

The Uchiha heir's eyes were burning. Dark flames were hidden behind his normal pupils and the Sannin understood that, no matter what she answered, he would keep using his chakra.

' _And they call me pigheaded_ ,' she thought with a small snort.

"You can still use it," she finally answered in a sight. "But not much. And you need to rest after a straining activity, do you hear me? Always rest for fifteen minutes after using your chakra. Always."

The Uchiha nodded, his eyes still a little bit dead but their fire not extinguished.

"I will," he promised. "Once I get back from Kiri."

Tsunade pursed her lips and pondered over just telling him the truth. The boy seemed so taken with going in that mission that she didn't really want to be the one to rain on his parade. However, he really needed to know as the departure for tomorrow morning.

Decisions, decisions.

But the Uchiha decided in her place as he narrowed his dark eyes that were slowly swirling in their cursed red.

"You know something," he muttered as he frowned. "Something about me and it worries you..."

The Sannin gritted her teeth and threw a scalpel at the dark haired teen.

"Shut your goddamn mouth!" she yapped angrily before she decided to just break the news to him. "You don't have to worry about the mission because you've already been replaced."

The Uchiha's eyes widened, Sharingan vanishing as their black counterpart took the reigns.

"... Who?" were the sole words that came through his parted and shocked lips.

Tsunade shrugged. As if she cared about the impending death of another Uchiha.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

"Wait, what?" Shisui shrieked as he jumped away from the nervously laughing Toad.

The latter was scratching the back of his neck while idly dangling from the tree branch where he had taken refuge. Kakashi glared at the masked jounin from the burned spot where he had been buried to his shoulders. The white haired man had a kunai in his mouth and, from the look of his flaming eyes, was seriously considering throwing it at the jittery Toad.

Kaeru merely shrugged and gave another little laugh. But this time it was soundless and the two other men narrowed their eyes. The scarf over the faint glowing on the masked shinobi's neck couldn't deceive them. They know that the Toad used seals to make sure that his identity wouldn't be known.

"You aren't kidding?" Shisui exclaimed as he had understood Kaeru's body language. "Me?"

The Toad nodded lively and clapped his hands before he swiftly opened his arms, almost falling from his upside-down branch.

The Uchiha almost moaned at the thought of a mission with the masked jounin. But he quickly forgot about his worries of Kaeru trying to kill yet another important person when he remembered something important.

"Wait a minute!" he screeched and Kaeru stopped dangling on his branch immediately.

The masked man jumped from his spot and went to stand just next to Kakashi's head. The latter glared at him and spat his kunai at the Toad's shin. However, Kaeru didn't even seem to notice it as he had began to hop excitedly and avoided by a hair having Achilles's heel slashed.

"Wasn't that extremely secret and important mission supposed to go to Itachi?" Shisui inquired with a small frown.

Uchiha didn't steal each other missions. And Shisui had always considered Itachi as his best friend and even little brother (the boy was younger than him after all).

Kaeru tilted his head and, after what seemed to be a wince, nodded. But, just as Shisui was about to refuse the mission, the masked jounin raised a thumb and turned it until it pointed towards the ground. (Actually, it was towards Kakashi's head but Shisui figured that Kaeru meant to point the ground).

"So he's no good?" Shisui raised a perplexed brow.  
Since when had Itachi been no good? He was the perfect shinobi and ready to sacrifice himself for Konoha, something that Shisui didn't think he would ever been able to do.

Kaeru vividly nodded and wrapped his arms around his stomach before he keeled over, almost as if he was going to retch over the shinobi. Kakashi grimaced and went back to dig himself out, the Toad had used some kind of wind jutsu that impeded him from using his earth affinity to dug himself out.

"And he's sick?" the Uchiha muttered as he cupped his chin pensively. "Badly?"

Kaeru nodded.

"I see," Shisui closed his eyes and checked over his chakra reserves. The genjutsu that he had placed over the Uchiha was still working and leeching his chakra.

Going to that extremely secret and important mission (of which he didn't know anything. Great, just great!) while his chakra reserve was almost always depleted wasn't really a smart choice. And yet, the Hokage had done it.

"I'll do it," the Uchiha said with the utmost serious.

Kaeru beamed at him, not that they could see it as he was still wearing his mask, and waved happily his hand before he shunshined away.  
Shisui blinked, surprised by such speed from the habitually lazy shinobi, and stood there. He began to check in his mind what little luggage he would need and grimaced when he noticed that he wouldn't sleep tonight.

The sound of a small cough shook him away from his grim thoughts.

"Care to help me?"

Shisui abashedly grinned and went to help Kakashi get out of his hole.

"You have to admit that it was a really nice jutsu," the Uchiha commented lightly as he pulled the Hatake by his armpits.

The latter grumbled under his breath and didn't comment on that.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The sun was rising when Itachi finally found out where the Toad had been hiding. Curiously, it had been in the young jinchūriki's bed. In fact, the masked man was actually sitting on a chair, his feet leaning on the bed where two familiar children were soundlessly sleeping.

The Uchiha raised his eyebrows in surprise, noticing that the two jinchūriki were hugging each other and mumbling softly in the dreams, mumbles that sometimes morphed into some kind of animal-like growl. Itachi jumped from the open window into the room and folded his arms against his chest, waiting for the Toad to explain himself.

Except that the latter didn't, still sitting and watching over the children.

"Why did y-" began Itachi before the Toad swiftly cut him with a hush.

Kaeru pointed at the sleeping kids and sighed before he stood up. He made a brief sign at the Uchiha to tell him that he needed to follow him and went to the kitchen. There, once the angered teenager had sat in front of him at the little orange table, the masked jounin took out the white board and a pen.

「You'll be better in Konoha.」 he wrote before he showed him the board.

Itachi gritted discreetly his teeth and hissed softly.

"I'm one of the best shinobi in Konoha," he retorted in a calm voice. "And you know it."

「That's why you need to stay here.」 the Toad riposted while he leaned his cheek on his hand. 「The Hokage knows that I'm strong enough for the Kiri mission. Whoever is sent won't matter. However...」

Suddenly, Itachi understood and his eyes widened in horror.

"What are you planning?" he asked or rather ordered.

「Planning? Nothing, really. But there are people who are. And, since I won't be here, I wouldn't like it if a nest of snakes were to end in the middle of Konoha.」 The Toad pushed his message towards the Uchiha and the latter knitted his brows together.

"You think there are spies?" he muttered.

Of course, the thought had often caressed him, who wouldn't? They were shinobi and so were their enemies. Infiltration was in their nature and there were probably spies among them. That didn't mean that he liked it though.

Kaeru tilted his head. Then he went back to scribbling on his white board and let out a small yawn.

Itachi frowned a bit when he read what the other had written and watched the Toad ready himself for his impending mission.

"Do you trust me that much?" the Uchiha heir asked him even if he knew that the other wouldn't answer him.

Even Shisui, who spent a lot of time with the masked jounin, didn't know how much the Toad trusted him.

Kaeru turned back to look at the Uchiha and then the white board where his last message had been scribbled in wide and bold hiragana.

「PROTECT THE JINCHŪRIKI AT ALL COST」

Kaeru tilted his head.

* * *

**(・・?)**

* * *

The rain began to fall on the slowly awaking Konoha. Wind whistled through the empty streets and leaves ruffled just as a murder of crows flew away with loud caws.

A white snake slithered under a bush.

Konoha had just reached the eye of the storm.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I quite like the ending of this chapter.   
> So, by the next chapter, so many things are going to happen. You have no idea how hyped I'm by this. It's the Kiri arc, the one that marks the end of the childhood part of this story and also the end of all the conspiracies with the Uchiha. So, who wants to see what happens next?

**Author's Note:**

> And thus the chapter ends here. What did you think of it?
> 
> (Also, I haven't decided the final pairing. Not that it matters much)


End file.
